Yet more US corporate accounting discrepancies sent European stocks sharply lower today, boosting bonds and undermining any follow through from a large end-of-week rally on Wall Street.
The dollar also failed to get any benefit from gains of more than three per cent on major US indices on Friday, sliding against the euro and yen on accounting worries and comments from Japan's finance minister about its expected weakness.
Pharmaceutical company Merck said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it recorded about €12.75 billion euros in revenue from its pharmacy-benefits unit during the past three years that the subsidiary never collected.
The report - along with news that Reliant Resources has erased $7.8 billion from its accounts - added to the market's falling confidence in the state of US corporate finances that followed the bankruptcy of Enron.
"Accountancy fears at Merck will stop us in our tracks," one dealer in Europe said.
The Irish market was down 39.11 points at 4,475.95 in early morning trading.
The FTSE Eurotop 300 index was down more than one per cent, giving back part of its near four per cent surge on Friday.
London, Frankfurt and Paris bourse indices were all down. US stock futures suggested Wall Street would open lower later in the day.
Earlier, Japanese shares ended down, hurt by the Merck worries and a stronger yen weighing on exporters.
The benchmark Nikkei average closed off 0.53 per cent at 10,769.20, while the capital-weighted TOPIX index lost 0.86 per cent to 1,033.99. The Nikkei had earlier been up two percent, climbing above the key 11,000 mark.
The dollar was down more than one percent against the euro at around $.0.9850, erasing much of last week's gains and turning back toward its two-year low of $0.9990 set in June.
It was around half a yen off a recent nine-month low, at about 118.80.