Morning Market Roundup: World Stocks Down, Spain Debt Auction, Yahoo's CEO Problem

Here’s what’s important in the business world this morning:

Stock Drop: World stock markets dropped Monday as worries intensified over the condition of the eurozone and whether Greece is edging towards leaving the single currency union.

In Athens, Greek party leaders were scheduled to resume talks aimed at forming a government. But as the political wrangling dragged into its second week, markets contemplated the threat that the crisis-stricken country would not meet the terms of its bailout and drop out of the currency club

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.7 percent and Germany's DAX tumbled 1.95 percent. France's CAC-40 lost 2.27 percent. Wall Street also appeared set for a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.8 percent to 12,686 and S&P 500 futures losing 0.9 percent to 1,337.30.

Taking the hardest hits were the Athens Stock Exchange, which saw shares drop 3.5 percent, and Spain's Ibex, which fell 3.06 percent on continuing concerns that the country's crippled economy would not be able to keep a handle on its borrowing costs.

Yahoo!: Yahoo still has credibility issues, even after casting aside CEO Scott Thompson because his official biography included a college degree that he never received.

The troubled Internet company's next challenge will be convincing its restless shareholders and demoralized employees that the turnaround work started during Thompson's tumultuous four-month stint as CEO won't be wasted.

It won't be an easy task, given that Yahoo Inc. has now gone through four full-time CEOs in a five-year stretch marked by broken promises of better times ahead. Instead, Yahoo's revenue and stock price have sagged during a time when rivals such as Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. as advertisers spend more money online.

Spain: Spain managed to raise (EURO)2.9 billion ($3.8 billion) in a short-term bond auction on Monday, but concerns over the future of the euro currency union pushed investors to demand higher interest rates to lend the money and caused the Madrid stock market to plummet.

The Treasury paid a rate of 3 percent to sell (EURO)2.2 billion ($2.8 billion) in 12-month notes, compared with 2.6 percent in the last such auction April 17. It paid 3.3 percent to sell (EURO)711 million ($920 million) in 18-month notes, up from 3.1 percent.

Demand for the bonds was good - about double the amount offered in the 12-month category and nearly triple for the 18-month notes. The total amount sold was just short of the upper target of (EURO)3 billion ($3.9 billion).

But that could not mask the concerns of investors, who worried about the future of the 17-country euro currency bloc as political parties in Greece were unable to create a government a full week after general elections. Investors fear that because Greeks voted heavily in favor of parties that want to either cancel or renegotiate Athens' international bailout, the country may be forced to default and, ultimately, leave the eurozone.

U.S. Stock Futures: U.S. stock futures are heading lower as Europe wrestles with what to do next about Greece and more disconcerting economic data emerges from China.

Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 89 points to 12,699. Standard & Poor's 500 futures are down 11 points to 1,339. Nasdaq composite futures are off 19 points to 2,591.75.

Politicians in Greece resume power-sharing talks Monday as negotiations to create a government drag into a second week. That is raising the specter of new elections that may threaten a bailout for the indebted nation and its membership in the European Union.

And China's central bank cut reserve requirements for banks over the weekend following the release of disappointing economic data. Still, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index is down 0.6 percent to 2,380.72.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.