2:15 AM
McGhori
BRUSSELS: Efforts to stabilize Europe's financial crisis were thrown into disarray late on Monday as the 17 countries that use the euro braced for a possible downgrade of their credit ratings.
The leaders of France and Germany sought to restore confidence in the troubled European currency during the day with a joint call for changes to the European Union treaty so that countries using the euro would face automatic penalities if budget deficits ran too high.
Stock prices rose and borrowing costs for European governments dropped sharply in response to the changes proposed by French President Nikolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But on Monday night two people familiar with the matter said Standard & Poor's...
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