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European stock markets have fallen, with the inconclusive election result in Italy raising fears that political deadlock will delay economic reforms. Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 4.9%, while London's FTSE 100 shed 1.3% and share markets in Frankfurt

Italy will test markets today with the sale of long-term debt after borrowing costs rose to the highest in four months yesterday as inconclusive elections triggered renewed concern Europe’s debt crisis may deepen. This week’s vote produced a hung

"Once upon a time, the Federal Reserve Chairman’s Semiannual testimony in fulfillment of the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (aka “Humphrey Hawkins”) was a marquee event for markets," says Vincent Reinhart, Morgan Stanley's Chief U.S

All eyes this weekend will be on one large economy in Europe, Italy, and one small one, Cyprus. Elections there could send the markets back into a frenzied state of uncertainty over the euro's future. The outcome of two elections this coming weekend

Finance Genius Andrew Lo Explains How The World's Biggest Problems Can Be Fixed With Financial Engineering Andrew Lo is a Professor of finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He's also the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial

Italians began voting on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years, with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis. A huge final

Milan, Italy — Good morning from Italy, the most indebted country in Europe. It's election day! All day and for half of the day tomorrow, Italian citizens will be going to the polls to elect a completely new government. The winner of the last

British finance minister George Osborne said he would not flinch from his austerity drive, despite increasing pressure to change course after the loss of the country's 'AAA' credit rating and with elections approaching in two years. Moody's dealt

Most European stocks gained amid speculation Japan may appoint a central bank chief who favors stimulus and as investors awaited the results of Italy’s parliamentary election. Asian shares climbed, while U.S. index futures were little changed. BP Plc

Polls close in the hotly contested national election in just under 6 hours. The reason why the whole world is watching is that Italy is Europe's largest debt market, and a turn away from the current "reform" path would be seen as significantly

The pound came under pressure on Monday as currency traders reacted to the UK's loss of its top AAA credit rating. Having fallen to a two-and-a-half year low against the dollar and a 16-month low against the euro, sterling showed signs of recovering

“I’m sitting on cash,” Felix Zulauf said when he was asked in an interview where he was putting his money. With decades of asset management experience under his belt, he’d founded Zulauf Asset Management in Switzerland in 1990. But now he was

German business confidence probably rose to an eight-month high in February, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is gathering strength. The Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, will climb to 104.9

The European Central Bank said banks will return 61.1 billion euros ($80.5 billion) of its second three-year loan next week, half the amount forecast by economists. Some 356 financial institutions will hand back the money on Feb. 27, the first

There's a big rally going on across Europe right now. England's FTSE 100 is up 0.7%. France's CAC 40 is up 1.9%. Germany's DAX is up 1.0%. Spain's IBEX is up 1.6%. Italy's FTSE MIB is up 1.6%. This comes ahead of the huge Italian elections this

NYU economist Nouriel Roubini – known to many by his nickname, "Dr. Doom" – is getting bullish. Roubini has been pretty negative over the past few months, despite the rally in asset prices and a general turn in sentiment toward the economy and

It was a quiet day for news. But the markets headed up. First the scoreboard: Dow: 14,000, +119.9 pts, +0.8 percent S&P 500: 1,515, +13.1 pts, +0.8 percent NASDAQ: 3,161. +30.3 pts, +0.9 percent And now the top stories: There were no major U.S

Britain suffered its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency on Friday when Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A rating, dealing a major blow to finance minister George Osborne. Moody's said weak prospects

Goldman Sachs' Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report takes a close look at what the world's biggest hedge funds are trading. The report includes the Very Important Short Positions (VISP) — stocks in which have the most short interest outstanding. It's

States should not attempt to actively influence their currencies' exchange rates, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, adding that the euro trading between $1.30 and $1.40 was not out of the ordinary. "We are not in favour of an active