Italian two-year borrowing costs dropped below one percent on Monday as investors hunted for yield, though some of the bullishness was tempered by government officials’ comments that renewed fears about their commitment to fiscal discipline, Reuters reported. Last week’s announcement by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on a 2019 budget framework brought bond investors flocking back to Italy, the only short-dated euro zone securities offering relatively high yields.

A rescue fund set up to help euro-using countries paid its final 15 billion-euro ($17.3 billion) bailout loan to Greece on Monday after objections by Germany delayed the payment by several weeks, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The European Stability Mechanism said 9.5 billion euros (nearly $11 billion) of the loan would go toward a cash buffer Greece could use to meet its financial needs for almost two years. The other 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) was earmarked for paying off some of the country's considerable debt.

A sharp fall in German manufacturing output in June has fuelled concern that a global trade war has deepened an export-led slowdown in the eurozone. Official figures published on Monday showed that the value of new orders placed with German manufacturers fell by 4 per cent between May and June, as overseas demand plunged, the Financial Times reported. The biggest monthly fall since the beginning of 2017 led the country’s economy ministry to state that trade tensions were hitting exports.

Heti Valasz, a bastion of conservative journalism in Hungary, said it was closing operations after entering bankruptcy and the resignation of its editor, a former spokesman of Prime Minister Viktor Orban who had become critical of the populist leader, Bloomberg News reported. "Valasz.hu will cease providing content today," the publisher said in a statement on its website. The magazine became the latest in a string of publications which have shut down or switched to a pro-government stance in recent years.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV relocated two units at the heart of its accounting scandal to the U.K. as the retailer embarks on a new phase of recovery after reorganizing debt, Bloomberg News reported. Steinhoff Europe AG and Steinhoff Finance Holdings GmbH will move from Austria to Cheltenham, England -- where the South African company’s U.K. business is based. The supervisory boards of both units have been redrawn, with Steinhoff Chief Financial Officer Philip Dieperink and Commercial Director Louis du Preez holding positions at the Europe division.

Spain’s services industry faced a “marked slowdown” in activity growth last month, bringing a key gauge to its lowest level in almost five years, according to a survey of executives released on Friday, the Financial Times reported. IHS Markit’s Spain services PMI dropped to 52.6 in July from 55.4 in June. It was substantially worse than the fall to 54.4 that economists polled by Reuters had forecast. Output in the services industry expanded at the slowest rate since 2013, IHS Markit said, while growth in new orders eased.

The Italian Treasury has bought back nearly €1bn of short-dated government debt in a previously unannounced operation that appeared to be a bid to provide investors with liquidity in the teeth of a sharp market sell-off, the Financial Times reported. The move is the third time the government has bought back its debt since Italian bonds were first hit by negative investor sentiment in late May. That sell-off was triggered by the formation of a populist Eurosceptic coalition government.

The euro-area economy dispelled hopes of stronger momentum in July, with a slowdown in activity signaling that growth going forward might be sluggish at best, Bloomberg News reported. A Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing and services dropped to 54.3, ceding most of the ground it gained in June, IHS Markit said.

Deutsche Bank AG had the credit rating of one type of debt cut by Moody’s Investors Service after a change in German law last month paved the way for a more senior kind of borrowing, Bloomberg News reported. In a move that was widely anticipated, Moody’s downgraded the bank’s senior non-preferred debt to Baa3 -- the lowest investment grade -- from Baa2 and reclassified the bonds as “junior senior” debt. The government is now less likely to support what are currently senior notes, the ratings firm said in a statement Friday.

Billionaire Philip Day is in the early stages of a potential bid for British retailer House of Fraser to save it from collapse, Sky News reported on Thursday citing sources. The news comes a day after a rescue deal for House of Fraser was thrown into doubt after C.banner canceled planned fundraising for its deal to become a majority shareholder in the department store, Reuters reported. Day could yet decide not to table a formal proposal to acquire House of Fraser depending upon due diligence and discussions with the company, Sky News said citing one source.