Oil Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings

Oil Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings RELATED QUOTES Symbol Price Change TRI 27.82 -0.10 Related Content People wait to enter a government job centre in Malaga, southern Spain, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Jon Nazca People wait to enter a government job centre in Malaga, southern Spain, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Jon Nazca NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years. In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks. 'Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status,' it said. Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status. Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed. All of the ratings were given negative outlooks. Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts. 'Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures,' Fitch said. Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory. With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact. The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13. Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with 'detached serenity.' 'They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too,' he said during a live interview on Italian television. 'They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament,' he said. Fitch said of Italy: 'A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation.' (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)

Forex Europe downgrade fears make Treasurys a hot buy

Forex Investors are snapping up Treasurys and ditching European debt after news reports that France's credit rating could be downgraded on Friday. Several news outlets, citing unnamed sources, said Standard & Poor's was about to cut the credit rating of France and other European countries. In another fretful sign, U.S. exports to Europe plunged nearly 6 percent in November. Traders dumped higher-risk investments such as stocks and debt issued by European nations, causing borrowing costs for Italy and others to rise. If Italy risks defaulting on its debts, the crisis throughout Europe would worsen dramatically. The price of the 10-year Treasury note leaped 66 cents per $100 invested, pushing its yield down to 1.86 percent at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The yield peaked at 1.94 percent earlier Friday.

Oil France loses AAA-rating in blow to eurozone

Oil PARIS (AP) -- France's finance ministry says Standard & Poor's has cut the country's credit rating by one notch to AA. France's loss of its AAA-rating deals a heavy blow to the eurozone's ability to fight off its debt crisis. The country is the second-largest contributor to the currency union's bailout fund. S&P in December put 15 eurozone countries on creditwatch and other downgrades were expected later Friday. The cut in France's creditworthiness could also hurt President Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election chances. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. ROME (AP) -- Europe's ability to fight off its debt crisis was again thrown into doubt Friday when the euro hit its lowest level in over a year and borrowing costs rose on expectations that the debt of several countries would be downgraded by rating agency Standard & Poor's. Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. plunged late Friday when reports of an imminent downgrade first appeared and the euro fell to a 17-month low. The fears of a downgrade brought a sour end to a mildly encouraging week for Europe's heavily indebted nations and were a stark reminder that the 17-country eurozone's debt crisis is far from over. Earlier Friday, Italy had capped a strong week for government debt auctions, seeing its borrowing costs drop for a second day in a row as it successfully raised as much as euro4.75 billion ($6.05 billion). Spain and Italy completed successful bond auctions on Thursday, and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi noted 'tentative signs of stabilization' in the region's economy. A credit downgrade would escalate the threats to Europe's fragile financial system, as the costs at which the affected countries — some of which are already struggling with heavy debt loads and low growth — could borrow money would be driven even higher. The downgrade could drive up the cost of European government debt as investors demand more compensation for holding bonds deemed to be riskier than they had been. Higher borrowing costs would put more financial pressure on countries already contending with heavy debt burdens. In Greece, negotiations Friday to get investors to take a voluntary cut on their Greek bond holdings appeared close to collapse, raising the specter of a potentially disastrous default by the country that kicked off Europe's financial troubles more than two years ago. The deal, known as the Private Sector Involvement, aims to reduce Greece's debt by euro100 billion ($127.8 billion) by swapping private creditors' bonds with new ones with a lower value, and is a key part of a euro130 billion ($166 billion) international bailout. Without it, the country could suffer a catastrophic bankruptcy that would send shock waves through the global economy. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos met on Thursday and Friday with representatives of the Institute of International Finance, a global body representing the private bondholders. Finance ministry officials from the eurozone also met in Brussels Thursday night. 'Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Greece's leadership, the proposal put forward ... which involves an unprecedented 50 percent nominal reduction of Greece's sovereign bonds in private investors' hands and up to euro100 billion of debt forgiveness — has not produced a constructive consolidated response by all parties, consistent with a voluntary exchange of Greek sovereign debt,' the IIF said in a statement. 'Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach,' it said. Friday's Italian auction saw investors demanding an interest rate of 4.83 percent to lend Italy three-year money, down from an average rate of 5.62 percent in the previous auction and far lower than the 7.89 percent in November, when the country's financial crisis was most acute. While Italy paid a slightly higher rate for bonds maturing in 2018, which were also sold in Friday's auction, demand was between 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent higher than what was on offer. The results were not as strong as those of bond auctions the previous day, when Italy raised euro12 billion ($15 billion) and Spain saw huge demand for its own debt sale. 'Overall, it underscores that while all the auctions in the eurozone have been battle victories, the war is a long way from being resolved (either way),' said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities. 'These euro area auctions will continue to present themselves as market risk events for a very protracted period.' Italy's euro1.9 trillion ($2.42 trillion) in government debt and heavy borrowing needs this year have made it a focal point of the European debt crisis. Italy has passed austerity measures and is on a structural reform course that Premier Mario Monti claims should bring down Italy's high bond yields, which he says are no longer warranted. Analysts have said the successful recent bond auctions were at least in part the work of the ECB, which has inundated banks with cheap loans, giving them ready cash that at least some appear to be using to buy higher-yielding short-term government bonds. Some 523 banks took euro489 billion in credit for up to three years at a current interest cost of 1 percent. ___ Steinhauser contributed from Brussels. AP Business writer David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed.

Earn Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings

Earn Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings RELATED QUOTES Symbol Price Change TRI 27.82 -0.10 Related Content People wait to enter a government job centre in Malaga, southern Spain, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Jon Nazca People wait to enter a government job centre in Malaga, southern Spain, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Jon Nazca NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years. In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks. 'Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status,' it said. Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status. Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed. All of the ratings were given negative outlooks. Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts. 'Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures,' Fitch said. Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory. With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact. The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13. Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with 'detached serenity.' 'They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too,' he said during a live interview on Italian television. 'They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament,' he said. Fitch said of Italy: 'A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation.' (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)

Oil JP Morgan Earnings Highlight a Major Challenge for All Big Banks

Oil One of the hottest stocks in the land is limping into a long weekend this morning after earnings failed to impress investors, not only casting a shadow over JP Morgan (JPM), but stoking concerns about the entire Financial sector. Officially, JP Morgan's fourth quarter net income fell 23% to $3.7 billion, or $0.90 per share. While that met expectations, the biggest U.S. bank by assets stumbled on the revenue side, with a 9.6% decline that fell nearly a billion dollars short of estimates. 'They barely got over a very low bar,' says Charles Smith, CIO of Fort Pitt Capital and manager of the Fort Pitt Capital Total Return Fund (FPCGX), pointing out that the EPS estimate had come down about 20% in the past month alone. 'Their revenue growth was very weak,' he says, particularly at the investment bank were the top line shrank 30%. 'The fact that he (CEO Jamie Dimon) said he was proud of an 11% ROE is really telling,' Smith says in the attached clip, adding that revenue growth is going to be tough for all the universal banks. He believes slow revenue growth and shrinking ROE's (Return On Equity) is going to be the theme for the other big banks, many of which report results next week: Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs (GS) on Wednesday, and Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS) and American Express (AXP) on Thursday. Another reason for the poor reaction is simply because JPM and the broader Diversified Financials Industry have become market leaders, after shedding 25% and finishing in the bottom of the pack for 2011. Even though 85% of analysts who follow JP Morgan rate it a ''buy'' with an average price target of $45, Smith is not interested. 'There's going to be a continued opaque nature for these earnings reports going out at least another year,' he says, adding that things like ongoing expenses for mortgage litigation and write downs will continue to muddy up the results. To be fair, while the 4th quarter numbers appear to reflect a ''very weak December,'' the powerful earnings story of the full year cannot be ignored, where JP Morgan netted a record $19 billion profit for 2011. Have the recently re-heated bank stocks gotten ahead of themselves or can they recover and resume their trek higher? Feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page, on Twitter @MattNesto or @JeffMacke, or in the comment section below. Related Quotes: XLF 13.81 -0.11 -0.75% JPM 35.92 -0.93 -2.52% GS 98.96 -2.25 -2.22% BAC 6.61 -0.18 -2.65% MS 16.63 -0.54 -3.15% C 30.74 -0.86 -2.72% WFC 29.61 0.00 0.00% AXP 49.76 +0.11 +0.22% ^BKX 43.44 -0.17 -0.39%

Signals Gold & Copper Trends Are Still Higher: Holmes

Signals If you told me yesterday that the largest bank in the U.S. was going to report lackluster earnings results, and Standard & Poor's was going to take its credit rating clever to Europe, but the markets would largely shrug it off - I probably would have politely told said 'you're crazy!' Welcome to reality; it all happened today. And the little market that could clearly thinks it can still test higher levels and isn't going to let some silly headlines derail it. While JP Morgan (JPM), the big banks (^BKX), and the Euro are getting whacked today, it doesn't change the strategy of money managers like Frank Holmes, the CEO & CIO of US Global Investors, who says the crisis du jour has no bearing on the long term opportunities. 'I am a big believer that you buy gold on down days,' this transplanted Torontonian tells us from his new home in Texas. He believes this year could be 'one of those odd years' that the dollar and commodity prices rise together. And much as Holmes likes gold, he loves the gold miners (GDX) even more, largely because they got sold off alongside other stocks last year while the precious metal they produce rose 10%. 'I think the really big opportunity right now is gold stocks,' he says pointing to their relative price compared to spot gold, as well as their historically low price-to-book ratios, and in some cases dividend yields too. Among the names he likes and owns now are Yamana (AUY), RandGold Resources (GOLD), and lesser-known Franco Nevada (FNV) --which Holmes says pays a monthly dividend. As for the metal itself, Holmes is unmoved by the most recent developments and has had no change in his belief that 'anytime you have inflation running at 3% and you're getting 0.1% in a money market fund, it's always better to own gold.' He is similarly undaunted and unchanged in his conviction about copper and belief that China will successfully engineer a soft landing. He's staying long copper because of the country's plans to build 24,000 miles of high speed rail, and he likes the recent uptick in the JP Morgan Global Purchasing Managers Index, which signaled expansion for the first time in almost a year. 'I think copper will go higher,' he states. 'Just like oil can easily have supply restricted, you have seen copper restricted.' Related Quotes: JPM 35.92 -0.93 -2.52% ^BKX 43.44 -0.17 -0.39% XLF 13.81 -0.11 -0.75% EURUSD=X 1.268 -0.0029 -0.23% FXE 126.33 -1.43 -1.12% ^STOXX50E 2,338.01 -7.84 -0.33% FEZ 29.06 -0.57 -1.92% GCF12.CMX 1,632.40 -14.90 (-0.90%) GLD 159.26 -1.12 -0.70% IAU 15.97 -0.11 -0.68% GDX 54.05 -0.67 -1.22% AUY 15.68 -0.12 -0.76% GOLD 108.83 -2.03 -1.83% FNV 39.90 -0.40 -0.99% FXI 36.74 -0.10 -0.27% HGF12.CMX 3.597 -0.05 (-1.29%) COPX 13.91 -0.12 -0.86% CU 31.45 -0.33 -1.04%

Signals Lloyds chief executive skips annual bonus

Signals LONDON (AP) -- The chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, which was rescued by British taxpayers during the credit crisis, says he won't take his annual bonus for 2011. Antonio Horta-Osorio said Friday he's doing that because he took a leave of absence, not specifically in response to Prime Minister David Cameron's recent call for restraint on executive pay. Horta-Osorio took two months off last year as he suffered from sleeping problems. He did not disclose the amount in a bonus that he is turning down, but said future payments should take into account Britain's 'tough financial circumstances.' His pay and bonus entitlement will be disclosed next month in the group's annual report. British taxpayers still hold a 40 percent stake in the bank.