NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks on Monday suffered their biggest drop since November after a strong showing in Italian elections by groups opposed to the country's economic reforms triggered worry that Europe's debt problems could once again destabilize the global economy.
The decline marks the biggest percentage drop for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index since November7, and drove the S&P down to its lowest close since January 18. The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, Wall Street's favorite barometer of fear, surged 34 percent, its biggest jump since August 18, 2011.
Selling accelerated late in the trading session after the S&P 500 fell below the 1,500 level, which has acted as a significant support point. Monday marked the S&P's first close under 1,500 since February 4.
Italy's center-left coalition holds a slim lead over former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right bloc in the election for the lower house of parliament, three TV projections indicated. But any government must also command a majority in the Senate, a race that is decided by region.
The resulting gridlock in parliament could lead to new elections and cast into doubt Italy's ability to pay down its debt.
"Europe hasn't gone away as an issue, it is going to hang around, and it is rearing its ugly head today," said Stephen Massocca, managing director of Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.
"If someone gets elected who is simply not going to play by the rules, what are they going to do? It puts them in a real quandary here because their financial support, their monetary support is all stipulated by the fact that these austerity programs are going to be in place."
Earlier polls pointing to a center-left victory boosted stocks in Milan and other European markets, and also helped lift the S&P 500 to a session high of 1,525.84 on optimism that Italy would continue down its austerity path.
After a strong start to the year, equities have retreated more recently. The S&P 500's slight fall last week was its first weekly drop after a seven-week string of gains.
In Monday's volatile session, banks and other financial stocks were among the worst performers on worries about the sector's exposure to Italy's massive debt. The KBW Bank Index fell 2.7 percent.
The CBOE Volatility Index ended at 18.99, up 34.02 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 216.40 points, or 1.55 percent, to 13,784.17 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 27.75 points, or 1.83 percent, to 1,487.85. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 45.57 points, or 1.44 percent, to 3,116.25.
Although the overall market lost ground on Monday, there were a few bright spots.
Barnes & Noble Inc shares shot up 11.5 percent to $15.06 after the bookseller's chairman offered to buy its declining retail business.
Amgen Inc shares climbed 3.1 percent to $89.55, after rival Affymax issued a voluntary recall of its only drug, an anemia treatment that competes with Amgen's top-selling red blood cell booster, Epogen. Affymax shares lost 85.4 percent to $2.42.
The FTSEurofirst-300 index of top European shares edged up 0.04 percent and Italy's main FTSE MIB ended up 0.7 percent after earlier gaining nearly 4 percent.
Political uncertainty on the home front, though, is also on Wall Street's mind.
U.S. equities will face a test with the looming debate over so-called sequestration - U.S. government budget cuts that will take effect starting on Friday if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement over spending and taxes. The White House issued warnings about the harm the cuts are likely to inflict on the economy if enacted.
"Sitting out there is the one-thousand-pound gorilla - the sequester issue - and certainly nothing is happening there," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.
Lowe's Companies Inc lost 4.8 percent to $35.86 after the home improvement retailer posted fourth-quarter earnings.
With 83 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported results so far, 69 percent beat profit expectations, compared with a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.
Volume was active with about 7.27 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE MKT and Nasdaq, above the daily average of 6.46 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq by a ratio of about 4 to 1.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry, Nick Zieminski and Jan Paschal)
Top 10 ways biotechnology could improve our everyday lifePublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lan Yoon hlyoon@kaist.ac.kr 82-423-502-295 The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, February 25, 2013The Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology, one of the global networks under the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is composed of the world's leading experts in the field of biotechnology, announced today that the council has indentified "ten most important biotechnologies" which could help meet rapidly growing demand for energy, food, nutrition, and health. These new technologies, the council said, also have the potential to increase productivity and create new jobs.
The ten technologies were initially proposed at the WEF's Summit on the Global Agenda 2012 held on November 12-14, 2012 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and later confirmed at the World Economic Forum that took place in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23-27, 2013.
"The technologies selected by the members of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology represent almost all types of biotechnology. Utilization of waste, personalized medicine, and ocean agriculture are only a few examples of the challenges where biotechnology can offer solutions," said Sang Yup Lee, Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He also added that "the members of the council concluded that regulatory certainty, public perception, and investment are the key enablers for the growth of biotechnology."
These ideas will be further explored during "Biotechnology Week" at the World Economic Forum's Blog from Monday, 25 February, 2013. The full list follows below:
Bio-based sustainable production of chemicals, energy, fuels and materials
Through the last century, human activity has depleted approximately half of the world's reserves of fossil hydrocarbons. These reserves, which took over 600 million years to accumulate, are non-renewable and their extraction, refining and use contribute significantly to human emissions of greenhouse gases and the warming of our planet. In order to sustain human development going forward, a carbon-neutral alternative must be implemented. The key promising technology is biological synthesis; that is, bio-based production of chemicals, fuels and materials from plants that can be re-grown.
Engineering sustainable food production
The continuing increase in our numbers and affluence are posing growing challenges to the ability of humanity to produce adequate food (as well as feed, and now fuel). Although controversial, modern genetic modification of crops has supported growth in agricultural productivity. In 2011, 16.7 million farmers grew biotechnology-developed crops on almost 400 million acres in 29 countries, 19 of which were developing countries. Properly managed, such crops have the potential to lower both pesticide use and tilling which erodes soil.
Sea-water based bio-processes
Over 70% of the earth surface is covered by seawater, and it is the most abundant water source available on the planet. But we are yet to discover the full potential of it. For example with halliophic bacteria capable of growing in the seawater can be engineered to grow faster and produce useful products including chemicals, fuels and polymeric materials. Ocean agriculture is also a promising technology. It is based on the photosynthetic biomass from the oceans, like macroalgae and microalgae.
Non-resource draining zero waste bio-processing
The sustainable goal of zero waste may become a reality with biotechnology. Waste streams can be processed at bio-refineries and turned into valuable chemicals and fuels, thereby closing the loop of production with no net waste. Advances in biotechnology are now allowing lower cost, less draining inputs to be used, including methane, and waste heat. These advances are simplifying waste streams with the potential to reduce toxicity as well as support their use in other processes, moving society progressively closer to the sustainable goal of zero waste.
Using carbon dioxide as a raw material
Biotechnology is poised to contribute solutions to mitigate the growing threat of rising CO2 levels. Recent advances are rapidly increasing our understanding of how living organisms consume and use CO2. By harnessing the power of these natural biological systems, scientists are engineering a new wave of approaches to convert waste CO2 and C1 molecules into energy, fuels, chemicals, and new materials.
Regenerative medicine
Regenerative medicine has become increasingly important due to both increased longevity and treatment of injury. Tissue engineering based on various bio-materials has been developed to speed up the regenerative medicine. Recently, stem cells, especially the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), have provided another great opportunity for regenerative medicine. Combination of tissue engineering and stem cell (including iPS) technologies will allow replacements of damaged or old human organs with functional ones in the near future.
Rapid and precise development and manufacturing of medicine and vaccines
A global pandemic remains one of the most real and serious threats to humanity. Biotechnology has the potential to rapidly identify biological threats, develop and manufacture potential cures. Leading edge biotechnology is now offering the potential to rapidly produce therapeutics and vaccines against virtually any target. These technologies, including messenger therapeutics, targeted immunotherapies, conjugated nanoparticles, and structure-based engineering, have already produced candidates with substantial potential to improve human health globally.
Accurate, fast, cheap, and personalized diagnostics and prognostics
Identification of better targets and combining nanotechnology and information technology it will be possible to develop rapid, accurate, personalized and inexpensive diagnostics and prognostics systems.
Bio-tech improvements to soil and water
Arable land and fresh water are two of the most important, yet limited, resources on earth. Abuse and mis-appropriation have threatened these resources, as the demand on them has increased. Advances in biotechnology have already yielded technologies that can restore the vitality and viability of these resources. A new generation of technologies: bio-remediation, bio-regeneration and bio-augmentation are being developed, offering the potential to not only further restore these resources, but also augment their potential.
Advanced healthcare through genome sequencing
It took more than 13 years and $1.5 billion to sequence the first human genome and today we can sequence a complete human genome in a single day for less than $1,000. When we analyze the roughly 3 billion base pairs in such a sequence we find that we differ from each other in several million of these base pairs. In the vast majority of cases these difference do not cause any issues but in rare cases they cause disease, or susceptibility to disease. Medical research and practice will increasingly be driven by our understanding of such genetic variations together with their phenotypic consequences.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Top 10 ways biotechnology could improve our everyday lifePublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lan Yoon hlyoon@kaist.ac.kr 82-423-502-295 The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, February 25, 2013The Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology, one of the global networks under the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is composed of the world's leading experts in the field of biotechnology, announced today that the council has indentified "ten most important biotechnologies" which could help meet rapidly growing demand for energy, food, nutrition, and health. These new technologies, the council said, also have the potential to increase productivity and create new jobs.
The ten technologies were initially proposed at the WEF's Summit on the Global Agenda 2012 held on November 12-14, 2012 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and later confirmed at the World Economic Forum that took place in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23-27, 2013.
"The technologies selected by the members of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology represent almost all types of biotechnology. Utilization of waste, personalized medicine, and ocean agriculture are only a few examples of the challenges where biotechnology can offer solutions," said Sang Yup Lee, Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He also added that "the members of the council concluded that regulatory certainty, public perception, and investment are the key enablers for the growth of biotechnology."
These ideas will be further explored during "Biotechnology Week" at the World Economic Forum's Blog from Monday, 25 February, 2013. The full list follows below:
Bio-based sustainable production of chemicals, energy, fuels and materials
Through the last century, human activity has depleted approximately half of the world's reserves of fossil hydrocarbons. These reserves, which took over 600 million years to accumulate, are non-renewable and their extraction, refining and use contribute significantly to human emissions of greenhouse gases and the warming of our planet. In order to sustain human development going forward, a carbon-neutral alternative must be implemented. The key promising technology is biological synthesis; that is, bio-based production of chemicals, fuels and materials from plants that can be re-grown.
Engineering sustainable food production
The continuing increase in our numbers and affluence are posing growing challenges to the ability of humanity to produce adequate food (as well as feed, and now fuel). Although controversial, modern genetic modification of crops has supported growth in agricultural productivity. In 2011, 16.7 million farmers grew biotechnology-developed crops on almost 400 million acres in 29 countries, 19 of which were developing countries. Properly managed, such crops have the potential to lower both pesticide use and tilling which erodes soil.
Sea-water based bio-processes
Over 70% of the earth surface is covered by seawater, and it is the most abundant water source available on the planet. But we are yet to discover the full potential of it. For example with halliophic bacteria capable of growing in the seawater can be engineered to grow faster and produce useful products including chemicals, fuels and polymeric materials. Ocean agriculture is also a promising technology. It is based on the photosynthetic biomass from the oceans, like macroalgae and microalgae.
Non-resource draining zero waste bio-processing
The sustainable goal of zero waste may become a reality with biotechnology. Waste streams can be processed at bio-refineries and turned into valuable chemicals and fuels, thereby closing the loop of production with no net waste. Advances in biotechnology are now allowing lower cost, less draining inputs to be used, including methane, and waste heat. These advances are simplifying waste streams with the potential to reduce toxicity as well as support their use in other processes, moving society progressively closer to the sustainable goal of zero waste.
Using carbon dioxide as a raw material
Biotechnology is poised to contribute solutions to mitigate the growing threat of rising CO2 levels. Recent advances are rapidly increasing our understanding of how living organisms consume and use CO2. By harnessing the power of these natural biological systems, scientists are engineering a new wave of approaches to convert waste CO2 and C1 molecules into energy, fuels, chemicals, and new materials.
Regenerative medicine
Regenerative medicine has become increasingly important due to both increased longevity and treatment of injury. Tissue engineering based on various bio-materials has been developed to speed up the regenerative medicine. Recently, stem cells, especially the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), have provided another great opportunity for regenerative medicine. Combination of tissue engineering and stem cell (including iPS) technologies will allow replacements of damaged or old human organs with functional ones in the near future.
Rapid and precise development and manufacturing of medicine and vaccines
A global pandemic remains one of the most real and serious threats to humanity. Biotechnology has the potential to rapidly identify biological threats, develop and manufacture potential cures. Leading edge biotechnology is now offering the potential to rapidly produce therapeutics and vaccines against virtually any target. These technologies, including messenger therapeutics, targeted immunotherapies, conjugated nanoparticles, and structure-based engineering, have already produced candidates with substantial potential to improve human health globally.
Accurate, fast, cheap, and personalized diagnostics and prognostics
Identification of better targets and combining nanotechnology and information technology it will be possible to develop rapid, accurate, personalized and inexpensive diagnostics and prognostics systems.
Bio-tech improvements to soil and water
Arable land and fresh water are two of the most important, yet limited, resources on earth. Abuse and mis-appropriation have threatened these resources, as the demand on them has increased. Advances in biotechnology have already yielded technologies that can restore the vitality and viability of these resources. A new generation of technologies: bio-remediation, bio-regeneration and bio-augmentation are being developed, offering the potential to not only further restore these resources, but also augment their potential.
Advanced healthcare through genome sequencing
It took more than 13 years and $1.5 billion to sequence the first human genome and today we can sequence a complete human genome in a single day for less than $1,000. When we analyze the roughly 3 billion base pairs in such a sequence we find that we differ from each other in several million of these base pairs. In the vast majority of cases these difference do not cause any issues but in rare cases they cause disease, or susceptibility to disease. Medical research and practice will increasingly be driven by our understanding of such genetic variations together with their phenotypic consequences.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Here's a question we've been asking ourselves for a while: what if the dock for a hybrid tablet could offer not only a keyboard and battery, but also increased performance? Wouldn't that provide the best of both worlds, with long battery life when you're in tablet mode and true laptop productivity when you have a place to sit down?
Turns out AMD is on the same wavelength. In fact, the company has already implemented the idea in a prototype device here at MWC, destined to appear in commercial products around the middle of this year. As you'll see if you check out the video after the break, it's built by Compal and includes a 13-inch 1080p display with a quad-core Temash chip, which when combined with its Turbo Dock delivers some serious power -- going from 8 W to 15 W, with extra air flow delivered through the connector to keep it cool.
AMD says that the docked tablet offers general computing performance broadly at the level of a full-fledged 17 W Intel Core i3 notebook. Judging from Microsoft's Fish Bowl HTML5 benchmark, we're looking at a gain of 50 percent -- and yes, that's pretty impressive. Next stop, a dock with an extra discrete GPU for CrossFire gaming? Who knows, but it's the logical progression.
India launched seven satellites on Monday, including?the first spacecraft designed to hunt large space rocks.
By Miriam Kramer,?SPACE.com / February 25, 2013
An artist's illustration of the NEOSSat asteroid-hunting satellite in Earth orbit. The Canadian Space Agency mission will search for large asteroids near Earth and track space debris.
Canadian Space Agency
Enlarge
A rocket carrying seven new satellites, including the first spacecraft designed to hunt huge asteroids and two of the world's smallest space telescopes, launched into space Monday (Feb. 25) from an Indian spaceport.
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The Indian?Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off?at 7:31 a.m. EST (1231 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on a mission to deliver its muti-national payloads into Earth orbit.
Monday's rocket flight primarily aimed to launch the new ocean-monitoring SARAL satellite into orbit for the Indian Space Research Organisation and French Space Agency. The satellite is the first in a series of satellites created by ISRO to image the Earth, conduct space science, and carry out oceanic and atmospheric studies, ISRO officials said.
Several other payloads rode piggyback on the PSLV rocket, including the $25 million?Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite?(NEOSSat), a small spacecraft designed to seek out large asteroids in orbits that may stray near the Earth.
The suitcase-size satellite cannot track small space rocks like asteroid 2012 DA14, the 130-foot (40 meters) object that buzzed the Earth on Feb. 15, but scientists working with NEOSSat will use it to search for a specific types of asteroids that are at least 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) from Earth, mission scientist said. [See how NEOSSat tracks asteroids (Video)]
"NEOSSat will probably reduce the impact hazard from unknown large NEO?s [near-Earth objects] by a few percent over its lifetime, but is not designed to discover small?asteroids?near the Earth that may be on collision courses," NEOSSat co-principal investigator Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary wrote in a statement.
Two smaller nanosatellites developed in Canada also hitched a ride into orbit alongside SARAL and NEOSSat in what their builders have billed as the?world's smallest space telescope mission. The twin satellites make up the BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE) mission, which includes two tiny cubes, each just 8 inches (20 centimeters) across and weighing less than 15.5 pounds (7 kilograms). The satellites are expected to study the brightest stars in the night sky by measuring how their brightest changes over time.
The compact satellites were designed at the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. One of the satellites was built at the laboratory while the other was assembled by a partner team in Austria, university officials said.
"As their name suggests, the BRITE satellites will focus on the brightest stars in the sky including those that make up prominent constellations like Orion the Hunter," university officials explained in a statement. "These stars are the same ones visible to the naked eye, even from city centers. Because very large telescopes mostly observe very faint objects, the brightest stars are also some of the most poorly studied stars."
The two BRITE?nanosatellites?are part of a planned constellation that is expected to eventually number six satellites in all once complete.
Another Canadian satellite was launched today as well. SAPPHIRE, Canada's first military satellite is a small spacecraft designed to monitor space debris and satellites within an orbit 3,728 to 24,855 miles (6,000 to 40,000 kilometers) above Earth. The satellite is expected to augment the U.S. military's existing Space Surveillance System.
"It is with great pleasure that I announce that Canada?s Sapphire satellite has been successfully launched," Defense Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement. "Sapphire is a sound investment that will help safeguard billions of dollars of space assets, in fields such as telecommunications, weather, search and rescue, and global positioning systems."
The other satellites launched on India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle Monday were a mixed bag of spacecraft and missions. They included:
AAUSAT3:?A small science satellite developed in Denmark and built by students from Aalborg University.
STRaND-1:?The first smartphone-powered satellite ever launched into space. ?The Android phone that functions as the satellite's brain will run four apps that will take photos from the satellite, test the Earth's magnetic field, monitor the health of the satellite, and allow people around the world to upload videos that will play in space on the phone.
Monday's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C20 mission is India's first rocket launch of 2013.
Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.?
Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Psychogenic diseases, formerly known as 'hysterical' illnesses, can have many severe symptoms such as painful cramps or paralysis but without any physical explanation. However, new research from the University of Cambridge and UCL (University College London) suggests that individuals with psychogenic disease, that is to say physical illness that stems from emotional or mental stresses, do have brains that function differently. The research was published February 25, in the journal Brain.
Psychogenic diseases may look very similar to illnesses caused by damage to nerves, the brain or the muscles, or similar to genetic diseases of the nervous system. However, unlike organic diseases, psychogenic diseases do not have any apparent physical cause, making them difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat.
"The processes leading to these disorders are poorly understood, complex and highly variable. As a result, treatments are also complex, often lengthy and in many cases there is poor recovery. In order to improve treatment of these disorders, it is important to first understand the underlying mechanism," said Dr James Rowe from the University of Cambridge.
The study looked at people with either psychogenic or organic dystonia, as well as healthy people with no dystonia. Both types of dystonia caused painful and disabling muscle contractions affecting the leg. The organic patient group had a gene mutation (the DYT1 gene) that caused their dystonia. The psychogenic patients had the symptoms of dystonia but did not have any physical explanation for the disease, even after extensive investigations.
The scientists performed PET brain scans on the volunteers at UCL, to measure the blood flow and brain activity of both of the groups, and healthy volunteers. The participants were scanned with three different foot positions: resting, moving their foot, and holding their leg in a dystonic position. The electrical activity of the leg muscles was measured at the same time to determine which muscles were engaged during the scans.
The researchers found that the brain function of individuals with the psychogenic illness was not normal. The changes were, however, very different from the brains of individuals with the organic (genetic) disease.
Dr Anette Schrag, from UCL, said: "Finding abnormalities of brain function that are very different from those in the organic form of dystonia opens up a way for researchers to learn how psychological factors can, by changing brain function, lead to physical problems."
Dr Rowe added: "What struck me was just how very different the abnormal brain function was in patients with the genetic and the psychogenic dystonia. Even more striking was that the differences were there all the time, whether the patients were resting or trying to move."
Additionally, the researchers found that one part of the brain previously thought to indicate psychogenic disease is unreliable: abnormal activity of the prefrontal cortex was thought to be the hallmark of psychogenic diseases. In this study, the scientists showed that this abnormality is not unique to psychogenic disease, since activity was also present in the patients with the genetic cause of dystonia when they tried to move their foot.
Dr Arpan Mehta, from the University of Cambridge, said: "It is interesting that, despite the differences, both types of patient had one thing in common -- a problem at the front of the brain. This area controls attention to our movements and although the abnormality is not unique to psychogenic dystonia, it is part of the problem."
This type of illness is very common. Dr Schrag said: "One in six patients that see a neurologist has a psychogenic illness. They are as ill as someone with organic disease, but with a different cause and different treatment needs. Understanding these disorders, diagnosing them early and finding the right treatment are all clearly very important. We are hopeful that these results might help doctors and patients understand the mechanism leading to this disorder, and guide better treatments."
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A nuns casts her ballot in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A nuns casts her ballot in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A nun votes in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A nun exits a booth as she votes in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Nuns vote in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A man arrives to vote in a polling station in downtown Rome, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
ROME (AP) ? Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies.
Fellow EU countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece's troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece's, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.
Leading the electoral pack is Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist who has shown a pragmatic streak in supporting tough economic reforms spearheaded by incumbent Mario Monti. On Bersani's heels is Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul seeking an unlikely political comeback after being forced from the premiership by Italy's debt crisis. Monti, while widely credited with saving Italy from financial ruin, is trailing badly as he pays the price for the suffering caused by austerity measures.
Then there's the wild card: comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, whose protest movement against the entrenched political class has been drawing tens of thousands to rallies in piazzas across Italy. If his self-styled political "tsunami" sweeps into Parliament with a big chunk of seats, Italy could be in store for a prolonged period of political confusion that would spook the markets.
While a man of the left, Bersani has shown himself to have a surprising amount in common with the center-right Monti ? and the two have hinted at the possibility of teaming up in a coalition. Bersani was Monti's most loyal backer in Parliament during the respected economist's tenure at the head of a technocratic government. And in ministerial posts in previous center-left governments, Bersani fought hard to free up such areas of the economy as energy, insurance and banking services.
But it's uncertain that Monti will be able muster the votes needed to give Bersani's Democratic Party a stable majority in both houses of Parliament.
"Forming a government with a stable parliamentary alliance may prove tricky after elections," said Eoin Ryan, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. "A surge in support for anti-austerity parties is raising chances of an indecisive election result and post-vote political instability."
Another factor is turnout. Usually some 80 percent of the 50 million eligible voters go to the polls but experts are predicting many will stay away in anger, hurting mainstream parties.
When Berlusconi stepped down in November 2011, newspapers were writing his political obituary. At 76, blamed for mismanaging the economy and disgraced by criminal allegations of sex with an underage prostitute, the billionaire media baron appeared finished as a political force.
But Berlusconi has proven time and again ? over 20 years at the center of Italian politics ? that he should never be counted out.
The campaign strategy that has allowed him to become a contender in these elections is a simple one: please the masses by throwing around cash.
Berlusconi has promised to give back an unpopular property tax imposed by Monti as part of austerity measures. Even his purchase of start striker Mario Balotelli for his AC Milan soccer team was widely seen as a ploy to buy votes. Berlusconi has also appealed to Italy's right-wing by praising Italy's former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during a ceremony commemorating Holocaust victims.
The most recent polls show Bersani in the lead with 33 percent of the vote, against 28 percent for Berlusconi's coalition with the populist Northern League. Grillo's 5 Star movement was in a surprise third place, with 17 percent support, while Monti's centrist coalition was notching 13 percent. The COESIS poll of 6,212 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percent.
Pollster Renato Mannheimer said among his biggest clients heading into the elections were foreign banks seeking to gauge whether to hold or sell Italian bonds.
"They are worried mostly about the return of Berlusconi," Mannheimer said.
Uncertainty over the outcome of the vote has pushed the Milan stock exchange down in the days running up to the vote and bumped up borrowing costs, as investors express concern that Italy may back down from a reform course to pull the country out of recession.
Mannheimer said many undecided voters ? who comprise around one-third of the total electorate ? identify with the center-right, and that may help Berlusconi. He said that the undecided vote may also tilt heavily toward Grillo's protest movement.
The professorial Monti looked uncomfortable at first as a candidate but has recently warmed to the role. Like the others, he has not shied away from name calling, warning that Berlusconi is a "charlatan" and saying his return would be "horrific."
Bond analyst Nicholas Spiro said the election "will deliver the most important verdict on the eurozone's three-year-old austerity focused policies."
But he is betting on a period of political instability after the vote.
"An upset victory by Mr. Berlusconi may be markets' nightmare scenario," he said, "but the prospects for a stable and harmonious Bersani-Monti coalition government ? still the mostly likely outcome in our view ? are bleak."
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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