Italy Just Notched Up Another Quarter Of Recession

Italian GDP dropped another 0.1% in the third quarter, as expected.

That's following a 0.2% drop in Q2 and another 0.1% decline in Q1, capping nine months of recession for Europe's third-largest economy.

We've already had French data Friday morning, with a 0.3% boost in the third quarter. That's slightly stronger than economists expected, but still fairly poor by any other standard.

And from Germany, the once-reliable engine of the European economy, things were even worse. Europe's largest economy reported a 0.1% increase in GDP, narrowly avoiding a technical recession.