The other worry

The other worry is how much the Athens shenanigans will infect sentiment towards other fiscally strapped eurozone nations. The market will have an eye on an auction of Spanish sovereign debt later in the week. In the meantime, the bloc's debt sector is showing signs of stress, with Spain's benchmark 10-year yield up 8bp to 6.08 per cent.

One factor that was initially proving mildly supportive to risk assets was Beijing's move to encourage lending by China's banks. Early gains for Chinese stocks have been lost, however, and the the Shanghai Composite is down 0.4 per cent as investors realise that such a move by the central bank is only deemed necessary because of the recent slowdown in growth in the world's second-biggest economy.

"We consider this policy move as a response to the weaker than expected April economic and new loan data," analysts at Deutsche Bank said.

Indeed, the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a basket of the world's heavily traded commodities, closed last week at its lowest level in 19 months as investors became more worried about demand for resources as the global economy struggles for traction.