Former Irish State telco, Eircom, majority-owned by Singapore Technologies Telemedia  - - a unit of sovereign fund, Temasek, today reported a fall in underlying profits for the year to the end of June after dip in revenue. The company warned of the need to address its high debt level of about €3.5bn.

Eircom's adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were €669m, down 3.3%, while revenue dipped 8.5% to €1.8bn. The company lost 70,000 landline customers in the year, but the number of broadband and mobile customers have continued to rise. Lower prices meant revenue and profits at the Meteor mobile business fell.

Eircom has reduced its debt by more than €560m since June 2007, Paul Donovan, CEOtold Bloomberg. Restructuring programmes have resulted in a reduction of more than 1,500 in headcount (including contractors) since March 2009.

Germany: Official figures from the German Federal Labour office today show that the unemployment rate was stable in August at 7.6% of the workforce. The number of people seeking work was slightly lower at just under 3.188m people.

The fall meant that the jobless rate was unchanged from the level in July. This was the 14th monthly drop in a row and left the unemployment rate at close to a two-year low.

Economic View: Europe has the edge against the US; Goodbody chief economist, Dermot O’Leary, comments  -- "There was a time when the US was able to beat the Europe hands down, but there are early signs that this is changing this time around. No, we are not referring to the battle between the two that will take place in a little over four weeks time at the Ryder Cup, but the recent diverging recovery paths in the two economic blocs. While concerns have been expressed following the confirmation that US growth fell to only 1.6% in the second quarter and is likely to be something similar in Q3, the latest evidence suggests that the European recovery is strengthening.

This can be mostly attributed to the dynamism of the German economy, and is happening despite the obvious problems in some parts of the region. The latest evidence comes from the EC confidence data. It shows that economic confidence in the euro-area rose to 101.8 in August (from 101.1 in July), putting it at its highest level since March 2008. Significantly, only one sector – construction – has seen renewed weakness over recent months, with all of the other sectors – consumer, retail, services and industrial – rising to the highest levels since H1 2008. Given the amount of fiscal consolidation that is to be implemented in Europe, along with the continuing banking and sovereign issues, it is difficult to get overly excited about growth prospects for the euro-area, but the recent signs are to be welcomed, especially by Ireland, as 40% of our exports go to the region."

Foxconn reported a loss of $142 mn for the first half, on the back of rising costs. Gokul Hariharan, VP of technology hardware equity research at J.P. Morgan, tells CNBC's Bernard Lo why the world’s biggest contract maker of mobile phones will continue to be under pressure going forward:

European consumer leads the way as American counterpart more hesitant: Davy economist, Aidan Corcoran, commented -- "Consumer spending in the US rose more than forecast in July. However, the 0.4% month-on-month increase in purchases was not enough to spur markets out of their sideways drift. Incomes rose 0.2%, but posted a slight drop after adjusting for inflation and taxes. Real disposable incomes will not rise until companies begin hiring again, and companies will not hire until consumers have the income to drive a meaningful increase in spending. The data suggest this negative feedback and consequent standstill is a more likely outcome than a double dip over the medium term.

The European Commission released its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) yesterday, showing another strong gain in confidence. Both the EU and the euro-zone reported gains, rising to 102.7 (up 0.6 of a point) and 101.8 (up by 0.7), respectively. Consistent with a string of positive retail sales and consumer confidence data, the UK leads the way, with a 1.5 point gain. Germany also posted a strong gain, rising by 1.1 points. The index combines executive and consumer sentiment, giving a broader outlook than consumer confidence surveys.

Sentiment in services and industry held broadly steady, with the overall index benefitting from improving consumer confidence. With the growth in consumer confidence down to optimism about the general economic situation as well as easing of unemployment fears, there is some possibility that this confidence could be self-fulfilling, at least over the near horizon. However, the positive data are overshadowed by coming fiscal squeezes and the uncertain global outlook, which threatens to take the impetus from Europe's export-lead recovery."

US Markets

In New York Monday, the Dow fell 141 points or 1.39% to 10,010.

The S&P 500 slid 1.47% and the Nasdaq dipped 1.56%.