Stocks Retreat From Record Levels Amid Europe’s Wealthiest Club Breakaway

Stock markets pulled back from record levels on Monday while focus was firmly on the game of football as Europe’s wealthiest clubs seek to form a breakaway Super League.

Among the dozen football clubs looking to form their own tournament, shares in the publicly-listed Italian side Juventus and England’s Manchester United both jumped.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan on Monday announced plans for a breakaway European Super League.

“The financial incentive for the clubs is plain to see, with a multi-billion dollar package at the heart of the scheme, albeit it would forever break the integrity of the club game,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.

Shares of Juventus were up 17.5 percent near the closing bell on the Milan stock exchange, while Manchester United was 9.6 percent higher in late morning trading in New York, where its shares are listed.

Elsewhere on markets, bitcoin steadied around $55,000 after diving more than 15 percent at one point over the weekend after reports that the US Treasury could crack down on digital money laundering, according to NAB analyst Rodrigo Catril.

Bitcoin hit a record high above $62,000 last week ahead of the Wall Street debut of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, despite concerns about a bubble and the sustainability of the digital currency market.