It's time for the euro zone to either make up or break up according to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Advance notes of a speech he will give today in Manchester say the prime minister will tell his audience that "the euro zone is at a crossroads". It either has to make up or it is looking at a potential break-up".
Investors fears about the latter have dominated markets in recent days and yesterday it emerged the European Central Bank has stopped providing emergency cash to a number of Greek banks it considers to be insolvent.
It's being interpreted in some quarters as a reminder from ECB headquarters in Frankfurt of some of the benefits of remaining in the euro zone.
Yesterday marked the third losing day in a row for Wall Street and for most of the main European stock indices but overnight Asian shares did pick up slightly.
Asian shares recovered some ground on Thursday from the previous day's sell-off, but investors found little reason to chase risk amid deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion to other stressed euro zone economies.
The head of the World Bank warned on Wednesday that a decision by Greece to leave Europe's common currency zone would raise big questions about the impact on Spain, Italy and other euro zone countries with big debt loads that are undergoing structural reforms.
The euro added 0.2% to $1.2740, off a four-month low of $1.2681 reached on Wednesday, and the Australian dollar, typically linked to risk appetite, rose 0.4% to $0.9949, having hit a five-month low of $0.9870 on Wednesday.
US crude futures gained 0.9% to $93.61 a barrel, after settling down more than $1 on Wednesday. Brent futures were down 0.1% to $109.69 a barrel.
Japan's economy bounced back from a year-end lull in the first quarter, powering ahead of other major industrial nations to grow 1.0% in the January-March quarter.
