EUROPEAN MARKETS are expected to fall today following Friday’s announcement that ratings agency Standard & Poor’s was downgrading nine European countries.

Responding to criticism over the downgrade, S&P said this weekend that it doesn’t believe European leaders are doing enough to resolve the ongoing financial crisis.

Asian markets fell overnight amid fears that ongoing eurozone issues would spread and spark a another global recession.

Japan’s Nikkei was down 1.4 per cent this morning, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9 per cent, the China Securities Index 300 dropped 2 per cent, and the South Korean KOPSI fell 0.87 per cent.

Meanwhile, Australia’s ASX 200 dropped by just over 1.1 per cent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 was down 0.5 per cent.

The US markets are closed today to mark the federal holiday Martin Luther King Jr Day.

S&P said on Friday that it was moving all Eurozone memers bar Cyprus off of its ‘creditwatch’ list, but that they would all remain on a negative outlook. This means that it is not ruling out further downgrades, but that no downgrade is expected in the short-term.