LONDON (AP) - Stock markets mostly fell yesterday as investors took a breather following last week's big gains, which sent many of the world's major indexes above where they were when Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 24.36 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,850.99 while Germany's DAX fell 8.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,745.97. The CAC-40 in France was 9.72 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 3,907.01.

The differential between Irish and German ten-year bond yields has widened to record levels, in a sign that investors are beginning to doubt the ability of the Irish government to deal with its debts without outside help, most notably its partners in the eurozone. EU monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn arrives in Ireland Monday to evaluate the country's budget plan.

"The steadily widening eurozone peripheral spreads have come back in focus and have put pressure on Europe's common currency," said Eric Viloria, senior currency strategist at Forex.com.

By mid-afternoon London time, the euro was down 0.8 percent on the day at $1.3943.

While Ireland's debt difficulties are seemingly becoming more acute, concerns over Greece have diminished somewhat after the government led by Prime Minister George Papandreou held its own in local elections - helping to shore up market confidence that the austerity measures will continue for a while yet.

Currency traders will also be monitoring any comments that may have a bearing on the two-day meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations in Seoul later in the week. Last week's move by the Fed has caused a degree of concern in China and Germany in particular, who also seem reluctant to back a US plan to target current account surpluses to four percent of GDP.

Earlier in Asia, stocks outperformed their counterparts in Europe as investors responded to the better than anticipated US jobs report for October, with Japan's Nikkei doing particularly well, closing up 1.1 percent at 9,732.92. South Korea's Kospi closed up 0.2 percent at 1,942.41. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4 percent to close at 24,964.37.

In China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.9 percent to 3,159.51, to hit its highest close since April while the Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller, second exchange gained 1.8 percent to 1,376.29.

Bucking the trend, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5 percent to 4,778.4.