Euro under the gun, shares hit after Italy votes 'no' on reform

SINGAPORE/SYDNEY - The euro was under the gun on Monday, skidding to a 20-month low after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would resign following a stinging defeat on constitutional reform that could destabilize the country's shaky banking system.

The single currency, which slumped to as low as $1.0505 in early Asian trade after opening at around $1.0685, pulled back up to $1.0562.

The drop to its session low was the sharpest fall since June and opened the way to a retest of the March 2015 trough around $1.0457.

The single currency dropped as much as 2.1 percent to 118.71 yen, but pared some of the losses to trade down 0.9 percent at 120.06 yen.

"The 'no' vote was priced in to a certain extent in advance. So I do not expect a freefall in the euro in the near term," said Minori Uchida, chief currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

"But in the long run, this will delay progress in Italy's efforts to get rid of banks' bad debt and is likely to widen the yield spread of German Bunts and the Italian bonds," he added.

The dollar was supported by expectations of a US rate increase this month and gained 0.1 percent to 113.74 yen.

The New Zealand dollar slipped 0.7 percent to $0.0782 after Prime Minister John Key unexpectedly announced his resignation on Monday, saying it was the "right time" to leave politics.

Key, a former foreign exchange dealer who worked at firms including Merrill Lynch, won office for the National Party in 2008, ending the nine-year rule of Labour's Helen Clark.

New Zealand stocks retreated 0.3 percent.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3 percent, while E-mini futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.4 percent.

Japan's Nikkei slid 0.6 percent.

Dealers said Italian bonds were set to come under pressure as top-rated U.S. Treasuries and German bunds gained. Futures for US 10-year Treasury notes added 10 ticks.

Investors and Europe's politicians fear victory for the opposition 'No' camp could cause political instability and renewed turmoil for Italy's banking sector, which has been hit by fears over its huge exposure to bad loans built up during years of economic downturn.

Renzi's resignation represents a fresh blow to the European Union, the euro zone's heavily indebted third-largest economy which is struggling to overcome a raft of crises.

Ultimately, the danger is that Italy holds a vote on whether to leave the euro, possibly triggering a break up of the entire bloc.

Analysts at RBCCM argued that, based on what happened in 2012 at the height of the Greek crisis, such a risk could see the euro trade as low as $0.8000.

"It may sound extreme, but if a second euro zone crisis were to hit, with the U.S. dollar at a much stronger starting point, EUR/USD could arguably trade lower still," they wrote.

Markets had earlier taken some encouragement when Austria's far-right presidential candidate was soundly defeated by a pro-European contender, confounding forecasts of a tight election.

The European Central Bank also meets Thursday amid much speculation it will announce a six month extension of its asset buying program and widen the type of bonds it can purchase.

"There has been some speculation that the ECB would step and front load purchases of Italian bonds if markets became unsettled by a 'No' result, so perhaps it is the thoughts of a central bank liquidity sugar pill driving things again," said ANZ economist Jo Masters.

OIL PULLS BACK

Wall Street ended last week on a cautious note, with the Dow off 0.11 percent, while the S&P 500 rose 0.04 percent and the Nasdaq gained 0.09 percent.

While Friday's U.S. payroll report was firm enough to cement expectations of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month, a surprise pullback in wages helped bonds pare a little of their recent losses.

In commodity markets, oil ran into profit-taking after boasting its best week in at least five years following OPEC's decision to cut crude output.

Markets are now focused on the implementation and impact of OPEC's first output cuts since 2008, to be joined by Russia and possibly other non-OPEC producers.

Brent crude was down 49 cents at $53.97 a barrel, while U.S. crude lost 37 cents to $51.31.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dollar nurses losses as investors look to OPEC, US data

TOKYO - The dollar nursed losses on Tuesday as US Treasury yields came off of their multi-month highs, while volatile crude oil prices ahead of this week's oil producers' meeting kept investors' risk appetite in check.

Since the victory of US President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 8, the dollar has soared in line with yields on US Treasury bonds, which have sold off on expectations that the Trump administration will embark on stimulus policies and boost inflation.

These expectations helped push up the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to a 16-month high last week.

The dollar stood at 111.96 yen, off its overnight low of 111.35 but well below an 8-month high of 113.90 touched on Friday.

"The dollar has been pulling back now in response to volatile oil prices, after rising on expectations of what Trump will do," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, chief currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

"Against the yen, it could even fall back to the 110 level, depending on what oil does, and we also have US data this week - although right now, the employment figures seem like a long time away," he said.

Crude oil prices have been on a roller coaster ride this week, as the market reacted to the developments on whether major producers would be able to reach an agreement on the contentious issue of output cuts at their meeting on Wednesday.

Later on Tuesday, investors will look to US third-quarter gross domestic product data as well as readings on consumer confidence and consumption for trading cues. They will be followed by the November employment report on Friday.

Data released early on Tuesday showed that Japan's unemployment rate in October held steady as the availability of jobs improved and household spending fell at a slower pace, a tentative sign that a robust labor market is lending support to domestic demand.

Political risks kept the euro in check, though it still managed to post a nearly two-week high of $1.0686 overnight. It last traded at $1.0615, flat from late Monday's North American levels.

Worries about Italy's banking system have been mounting ahead of a Dec. 4 referendum on constitutional reform, which could unseat the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

More than 8 billion euros of legal claims against Monte dei Paschi di Siena, its weakening liquidity and the potential for more bad loan writedowns are among risks the bank says could scupper its 5-billion-euro rescue plan.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, scaled a nearly 14-year peak of 102.05 on Thursday before profit-taking and oil jitters brought it back down to earth. It was last at 101.160.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Over 200 dead in central Italy earthquake

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that shook central Italy rose to 247 on Thursday, officials said, as rescuers desperately searched for survivors in the rubble of devastated mountain villages.

Hundreds of others were injured, some critically, and an unknown number were trapped under the ruins of collapsed buildings after Wednesday's pre-dawn quake.

Amid scenes of carnage, dozens of emergency services staff and volunteers were determined to attempt to pluck more survivors from the ruins.

Rescuers had pledged to work through the night in the hope of finding people alive in the mangled wreckage of homes.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier warned that the toll would likely rise after visiting the badly hit village of Amatrice.

Hundreds of people spent a chilly night in hastily assembled tents with the risk of aftershocks making it too risky for them to return home.

Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, which had a magnitude of between 6.0 and 6.2.

It hit a remote area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio at a time of year when second-home owners and other visitors swell the numbers staying there. Many of the victims were from Rome.

The devastated area is just north of L'Aquila, the city where some 300 people died in another quake in 2009.

Most of the deaths occurred in and around the villages of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.

- Anguish -

Guido Bordo, 69, lost his sister and her husband after they were trapped inside their holiday house in the hamlet of Illica, near Accumoli.

"There's no sound from them, we only heard their cats," he told AFP before the deaths were confirmed.

"I wasn't here. As soon as the quake happened, I rushed here. They managed to pull my sister's children out, they're in hospital now," he added, wringing his hands in anguish.

Among the victims was a nine-month-old baby girl whose parents survived, an 18-month-old toddler and two other young children who died with their parents in Accumoli.

Two boys aged four and seven were saved by their quick-thinking grandmother, who ushered them under a bed as soon as the shaking began, according to reports. She also survived but lost her husband.

Renzi said it was too early to consider what might have been done to prevent the disaster.

"Today is the time for tears and emotion," he said, vowing that his government would start reconstruction work first thing on Thursday.

- Bodies in playground -
It was Italy's most powerful earthquake since the 2009 disaster in L'Aquila.

"Half the village has disappeared," said Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi, surveying a town centre that looked as if had been subjected to a bombing raid.

The tremors were strong enough to be felt 150 kilometres (90 miles) away in Rome, where authorities ordered structural tests on the Colosseum.

Some of the worst damage was in Pescara del Tronto, a hamlet near Arquata in the Marche region where the bodies of the dead were laid out in a children's park.

With residents advised not to go back into their homes, temporary campsites were being set up in Amatrice and Accumoli as authorities looked to find emergency accommodation for more than 2,000 people.

Amatrice is a hilltop beauty spot considered home of amatriciana, one of Italy's favourite pasta sauces. It is popular with Romans seeking cool mountain air at the height of the summer.

It was packed with visitors when the quake struck at 3:36am (0136 GMT).

Three minutes later the clock on the village's 13th-century tower stopped.

- 'Out of the blue' -

The first quake measured 6.2, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

It measured 6.0 according to Italian monitors, who put the depth at only four kilometres. A 5.4-magnitude aftershock followed an hour later.

Italy is vulnerable to earthquakes and the 2009 tremor in L'Aquila led to lengthy recriminations over lax building controls and the failure of authorities to warn residents that a quake could be imminent.

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at Britain's Open University, said the shallowness of Wednesday's quake had made it more destructive.

But he added: "Unlike the L'Aquila quake, which was preceded by swarms of smaller quakes and led to claims -- unjustified in my view -- that the eventual big quake should have been predicted, this one appears to have struck out of the blue."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Italian fertility doctor under arrest for eggs 'theft'

ROME - A controversial Italian gynaecologist famed for helping women in their 60s to have children is under house arrest in Rome on suspicion of removing eggs from a patient's ovaries without her consent.

Lawyers for Severino Antinori, who has been nicknamed the "grandmothers' obstetrician," dismissed the charges as absurd and claimed Saturday that their client had been the victim of attempted extortion.

Antinori, 70, was arrested at Rome's Fiumicino airport on Friday following a complaint filed by a 24-year-old woman who was treated for an ovarian cyst at the clinic, police said.

Antinori has had his licence to practice gynaecology provisionally suspended for a year and was ordered to stay at his Rome home pending further investigation into charges of aggravated robbery and causing personal injury.

The alleged victim was a Spanish national with a nursing qualification who had recently begun working at the clinic.

Prosecutors suspect Antinori met the woman by chance, set up a job interview and subsequently diagnosed the ovarian cyst with the sole intention of harvesting her eggs without her knowledge.

The woman says that prior to receiving treatment on April 5, she had her mobile phone taken off her before being forcibly immobilised, placed under anaesthetic and operated on without her consent.

She believed she was only going to be treated by injection for the cyst, according to her lawyer.

The investigation was triggered by the woman calling emergency services from a payphone in the clinic after she came round from the surgery.

But one of Antinori's lawyers said Saturday that the women had agreed to donate eggs and had signed detailed consent forms a month before the surgery.

Tommaso Pietrocarlo told Italian news agency ANSA that she had signed the forms "after a consultation with a psychologist who will state that she was conscious of the choice she was making and that it did not pose any problem."

- Quadruplets at 65, mum at 72 -

Prosecutors are also working on the hypothesis that this may not be an isolated case, according to the Italian media.

"The arrest of Severino Antinori is extremely serious because it indicates the existence of a market in eggs that will not stop at anything," said Donata Lenzi, an Italian lawmaker from Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party.

Antinori became famous worldwide in 1994 when his fertility treatment led to Italian Rossana Della Corte giving birth to a son at the age of 63.

At the time she was the oldest woman to have given birth but that record has since been surpassed several times.

A 65-year-old, Annegret Raunigk, gave birth to quadruplets in Germany last year and Daljinder Kaur, who told AFP she was around 70, gave birth to a boy last month following fertility treatment in India, where a 72-year-old reportedly had a child in 2008.

Antinori was was also involved in the treatment of Patricia Rashbrook, who became Britain's oldest new mother when she had a boy in 2006 at the age of 62.

The physician has attracted controversy with his advocacy of the use of cloning technology to enable infertile couples to have children by injecting genetic material from a father into donated eggs.

It is unclear whether he has ever overseen the creation of a cloned child although he has suggested as much in interviews.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Thousands march in Rome for gay rights

ROME - Thousands of people marched in Italian cities Saturday to demand legal recognition for gay couples and their children, days before lawmakers begin addressing the deeply divisive issue.

Italy is the only major Western European country not to have enacted civil union legislation allowing same-sex couples to have their relationships acknowledged and protected in law.

A bill, which the Senate will start examining on Thursday, is the first to get to parliament.

If approved, the draft legislation will enable same-sex couples to commit themselves to one another before a state official, to take each other's names and, in certain circumstances, adopt each other's children and inherit each other's residual pension rights.

"The first time I marched with these slogans, it was 10 years ago, and I was pregnant. I hope this time it works," said bank worker Costanza Tantillo, who joined the Rome protest with her partner and their two children, nine-year-old Beatrice and Ludovico, four.

Two women who marched nearby held up a sign that read: "Stella and Paola, we've been together for 30 years and you still don't acknowledge us."

Protests had been planned for 90 towns and cities across Italy, under the slogan "Wake up Italy! It's time to be civil."

Opponents of the bill, in contrast, are planning a show of strength at a demonstration scheduled for January 30 in Rome's Circus Maximus.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend the self-styled "Family Day," organised by mainly Catholic groups under the battle cry of "Defend our Children".

Angelo Bagnasco, the chair of the Italian conference of bishops, has denounced the whole debate as a "grave and irresponsible distraction from the real problems of the country".

In the world of politics, dividing lines cut across party loyalties. A minority faction within the ruling Democratic Party supports junior coalition partner the New Centre Right (NCD) in opposing a reform championed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Renzi, who has allowed his allies a free vote on the "issue of conscience", can however count on backing from most of the opposition Five Star movement, left-wing fringe parties and even sections of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

Most observers expect Renzi will get the bill adopted in the end.

- 'Historic day' -

According to Italian media, there were at least 7,000 demonstrators in Turin, 5,000 in Milan, thousands in Rome and Bologna, a thousand in Bari in the south, and hundreds in Naples and Venice among others.

"It is a historic day for this country, an immense protest that was fed by the desire and enthusiasm of a lot of people who hold the belief in equality close to their hearts," said Gabriele Piazzoni, the national secretary of Italy's biggest gay rights group, Arcigay.

In what many saw as papal intervention in the debate, Pope Francis on Friday ruled out any form of union except Catholic marriage.

"What he said didn't surprise me, all he did was to repeat the church's anthropological viewpoint," said Andrea Rubera, a gay man who married a fellow homosexual in Canada.

They came to the demonstration with their three young children.

"But he chose to say this on the eve of the day when we took to the streets to defend the rights of our children to have a little security."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Oil prices down as Greece default looms

SINGAPORE - Oil prices extended losses in Asia Tuesday on expectations Greece will miss a key debt repayment later in the day and edge closer to a eurozone exit, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery fell 23 cents to $58.10 while Brent crude for August eased 15 cents to $61.86 in late-morning trade.

WTI sank $1.30 and Brent lost down $1.25 Monday.

Crude tracked losses in global equity markets Monday after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stunned the world at the weekend by breaking off bailout reform talks and calling for a referendum on austerity conditions demanded by its creditors.

The move means Athens is unlikely to agree a deal to unlock bailout funds to repay an IMF debt by the end of Tuesday, putting it in default and in danger of crashing out of the eurozone.

Top European leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel France's Francois Hollande and Italy's Matteo Renzi called on the Greek people to vote for the creditors' proposals, warning a "no" would mean exiting the eurozone.

"This display of volatility comes from the uncertainty with Greece," said Daniel Ang, investment analyst with Phillip Futures in Singapore.

Ang said with the US dollar holding firm due to investors viewing it as a safe haven, oil prices would remain pressured. A stronger greenback makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies.

Dealers were also waiting to see if Iran and major world powers can reach a deal on curbing Tehran's nuclear program by the end of Tuesday, a deadline set by both sides.

Such an agreement would allow Western powers to remove sanctions, paving the way for more Iranian crude to hit the already oversupplied international market.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Monday that "it was too early to make any judgements" on whether the deal will be agreed by the deadline.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Luxury watchmaker Rolex wants apology from Italy's PM

ROME - Luxury watchmaker Rolex demanded an apology on Wednesday from Italy's prime minister and interior minister for saying that violent demonstrators who devastated parts of Milan last week were "rich, spoiled brats with Rolexes".

The company took out full-page advertisements in major national newspapers to contest comments both politicians made after police fired tear gas at protesters who threw stones and petrol bombs and broke shop windows.

In his address to parliament on the riots - protests against Milan's Expo global fair - Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said police photos showed that one demonstrator who defaced a bank window appeared to be wearing a Rolex.

"Yesterday, on the streets I saw bastards wearing hoods and rich, spoiled brats with Rolexes," Alfano told parliament.

Later, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi thanked the citizens of Milan for cleaning up the damage caused by "those with Rolexes who went around destroying shop windows".

The watchmaker, which sponsors major sporting events and has supported Milan's famous La Scala opera house, was not pleased.

Rolex's CEO for Italy, Gianpaolo Marini, wrote in the open letter in the newspapers that the low quality of the pictures of the violent demonstrators left considerable doubt as to whether they were wearing Rolexes and whether they were real or the cheap knock-offs sold on Italian streets.

He denounced "the unacceptable linking of the image of Rolex with the devastation in Milan and the world of subversive violence".

Both the prime minister and the interior minister had no immediate response to the advertisement.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com