italy

Despite getting bad publicity from Moody's Investors Service recently, France and Spain both conducted bond auctions on Thursday that the two countries deemed successful. Earlier this week Spain was downgraded and France was put on downgrade watch by Moody's but the two Eurozone countries managed...

Moody's Investors Service announced that it was placing more than 100 European financial institutions in 16 countries on review for possible downgrades. Reasons for the possible downgrades that were cited by Moody's included the Eurozone financial crisis, earlier downgrades of multiple Eurozone...

For once there was good news coming out of Europe when France and Germany reported better than expected fourth quarter economic results. Although Germany's economy shrank by 0.2 percent, it was less than the 0.3 percent contraction that was widely expected. Germany also had its third quarter...

Stock prices across Europe fell during early Tuesday trading after Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of several European Union countries. Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain and gave each of them a negative outlook as well. The...

Italy saw its borrowing costs drop significantly on Monday, following the Greek Parliament's approval of another set of austerity measures. Passage of the austerity measures were crucial in order for Greece to receive its next round of bailout funds and to avoid a possible default. European Union...

Japan's economy shrank more than expected during the last quarter of 2011, as a strong yen and floods in Thailand hampered Japanese efforts to recover from last year's earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese economy shrank an annualized 2.3% during the 4th quarter, which was a much bigger drop than...

The German economy stands in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe. For example, unemployment, which has been troublesome for many of the other economies in Europe, is approaching its lowest level in 30 years, coming in at 6.7 percent in January. German unemployment has been decreasing steadily for...

The financial crisis facing the European Union claimed another member country's leader when Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc announced on Monday his decision to step down. Prime Minister Boc said that he was resigning in order to reduce political and social tension that had been growing after weeks...

Friday the thirteenth lived up to its ominous reputation as far as the Euro is concerned. The common currency of a union long haunted by financial inviability hit lows not seen in 17 months today driven by S&P sovereign downgrade rumors and halted talks on Greek debt. To a lesser extent,...

On January 9th, Unicredit—Italy's largest banking unit—will see its share capital increased. The total maximum amount will be up to € 7500 billion. On Thursday, it was said that existing ordinary and saving shareholders would receive two new shares for each they own. The price is 1.943 euros...

2011 has been a tough year for the Euro Zone countries. The sovereign debt crisis has shaken investors' confidence in the Euro currency and bond yields of a number of Sothern European countries have been at record highs. These red flags have been big enough to catch credit agencies attention too...

Reports on Thursday morning were suggesting that Italy has auctioned 7.02 billion euros (approximately $9 billion) of bonds. That number falls short of the target that had been set, while borrowing costs declined. According to Bloomberg, the Italian treasury in Rome sold, “2.5 billion euros of...

US equity markets traded lower on Monday morning, as the US dollar index rallied roughly 1%. Commodities across the board showed weakness—gold dropped below $1670. The US dollar index is a measure of the dollar against a basket of other currencies. Perhaps contributing the most to the index's gain...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is asking his country's parliament to pass another round of austerity measures aimed at preventing an Italian default. The latest set of austerity measures being presented to the Italian Parliament is said to be around 30 billion euros ($40 billion). The measures...

Dow futures spiked early on Friday morning when it was reported that the European Central Bank (ECB) might lend money to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Speculation is that the money lent by the ECB to the IMF would be funneled back to Europe in the form of IMF aid. Many market...