LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures and European stocks fell and oil slid 3% on Monday as surging Omicron COVID-19 cases triggered tighter curbs in Europe and a $1.75 trillion U.S. domestic investment bill suffered a potentially fatal blow. The spread of the Omicron variant saw the Netherlands go into lockdown this weekend and put pressure on others to tighten restrictions. Britain's cabinet will meet later on Monday as the country faces record cases, while the World Economic Forum postponed until mid-2022 its annual meeting which had been due to take place in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos in January. read more Goldman Sachs cut its U.S. real GDP forecast for the first quarter of 2022, meanwhile, after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is key to President Joe Biden's hopes of passing the investment bill, said on Sunday he would not support the package. read more "Senator Manchin not supporting the President's fiscal package and Omicron spreading fast between them have lowered the tone for the start of the week and we have weaker equities, lower oil prices, lower bond yields and a stronger yen, dollar, and euro," said Kit Juckes, head of FX strategy at Societe Generale in London. Thin pre-Christmas trading was likely to exacerbate market moves, he added. S&P and Nasdaq futures fell 1%, pointing to a lower Wall Street open, European (.STOXX) and UK (.FTSE) stocks hit two-week lows, and were down 1.3% and 1% respectively. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 1.7% to its lowest in a year and the world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) hit its lowest in nearly two weeks. Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) also hit their lowest in a year. Beijing lightened the mood a little by cutting one-year loan rates for the first time in 20 months, though some had hoped for an easing in five-year rates as well. read more The timing of the cut ahead of the Jan 1 interest rate resetting date for corporate loans was positive for corporate borrowers, JPMorgan analysts said. Chinese blue chips still fell 1.5% (.CSI300), while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) dropped 2.1%. Oil prices dropped amid concerns the spread of the Omicron variant would crimp demand for fuel.
Brent was down 2.6% at $71.58 a barrel, while U.S. crude lost 3.1% to $68.66 per barrel. While coronavirus restrictions cloud the outlook for economic growth, they also risk keeping inflation elevated, prompting central banks to consider raising rates. It was notable that Federal Reserve officials were openly talking of hiking rates as soon as March and of starting to run down the central bank's balance sheet in mid-2022. read more That is earlier than implied by futures , which had been well ahead of Fed intentions until now. The market has only priced in a 40% chance of a hike in March, with June still the favoured month for lift off. The Fed's hints of faster tightening, combined with safe-haven flows, underpinned the U.S. dollar index near its best for the year at 96.544 , following a 0.7% jump on Friday. The euro rose 0.27% to $1.1271 , having shed 0.8% on Friday to threaten its low for the year. The dollar was steady at 113.62 yen . Sterling fell 0.28% to $1.32 as Omicron worries erased all the gains made following the Bank of England's surprise rate rise last week. Yields on U.S. 10-year notes were down at 1.387%, well below their 2021 top of 1.776%. Ten-year German government bond yields fell to their lowest in nearly two weeks and were trading at -0.38%. The Turkish lira hit a record low and was trading at 17.73 to the dollar on concerns over President Tayyip Erdogan's low interest rates economic policy and soaring inflation. read more Chile's peso currency fell over 3% on Monday in pre-opening, after leftist Gabriel Boric comprehensively won the Andean country's presidential election on Sunday. read more Gold was steady at $1,798 an ounce , having broken a five-week losing streak last week as equities slipped. - Reuters
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A Danish politician behind some of Europe’s strictest immigration policies will be jailed after she was found guilty of breaching her duties by illegally separating refugee couples.
Former immigration minister Inger Stojberg, 48, was sentenced to 60 days of unconditional imprisonment, Denmark’s impeachment court ruled on Monday. Lawmakers will now decide if Stojberg, currently serving as an independent member of parliament, is unfit to hold her seat until the next election, due to be held no later than June 2023. Inger Stojberg Source: AFP/Getty ImagesThe verdict highlights changes in the Nordic nation which was ahead of much of the rest of Europe when it embraced anti-immigration policies at the beginning of the 2000s. In 2016, Denmark separated 23 refugee couples upon arrival on Stojeberg’s order which was later deemed unlawful by the parliament’s ombudsman as it failed to acknowledge that couples have the right for individual assessments. Stojberg, who was forced to quit as deputy leader of Denmark’s main opposition party earlier this year, argued that she was trying to protect girls from being forced into marriage before they’re adults. “Danish values lost today, not just me,” she told reporters immediately after the ruling, in which 25 out of 26 judges said she acted with intent. She said she doesn’t regret her actions. A favorite to become the next head of the country’s once powerful far right party, Stojberg’s sentencing could mean more hardship for the ailing political force. The support for the far right has dried up partly as other parties including the ruling Social Democrats have adopted some of its anti-immigration agenda. The impeachment trial, the country’s first in almost three decades, was launched by parliament this year after a legal probe identified Stojberg as the sole responsible minister. Prosecution had sought a 4-month conditional jail term. Stojberg’s reunification policies have drawn harsh criticism from the United Nation’s refugee agency among others. During her tenure as a minister, she was also responsible for the so-called jewelry law, which forces refugees to hand over valuables when seeking asylum. - Bloomberg This year's Kennedy Center honorees Joni Mitchell, Bette Mider, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels and Justino Díaz were celebrated this weekend with a reception at The White House, a medallion ceremony at The Library of Congress and a splashy, black-tie event at the performing arts center's Opera House. The tributes and performances were filmed for a special broadcast to air on CBS on Dec. 22. President Joe Biden and the First Lady attended the gala event Sunday night, a return to tradition that did not go unnoticed by host David Letterman. "It is very nice to see the presidential box once again being occupied," Letterman said. In President Trump's four years in office, neither he nor Melania Trump attended the Kennedy Center Honors. Joni Mitchell was honored for her timeless, emotional songs on such albums as Court and Spark -- and Blue. "Poetically expansive" is how pianist and composer Herbie Hancock described Mitchell's classic song Both Sides Now, which she wrote when she was in her early 20s. When Mitchell was nine years old, she contracted polio. The disease weakened her left hand. When Mitchell started playing ukulele and guitar, Hancock explained, she "devised her own tunings so she could access the emotionally complex chords that she was hearing in her mind." In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm that nearly killed her.
"I think the polio was a rehearsal for the rest of my life," she said after receiving her Kennedy Center Honor medallion. "I've had to come back several times, for one thing, and this last one was a real whopper. But you know, I'm hobbling along there. I'm doing all right," she said to a hearty round of applause. This year marks the Kennedy Center's 50th anniversary. Honoree Justino Díaz sang in the inaugural performance at the Kennedy Center's Opera House as the leading male role in Alberto Ginastera's Beatrix Cenci. The Puerto Rican native has shared the world's most famous stages with such renowned singers as Leontyne Price and Joan Sutherland. Best known for performing villains, Díaz was Iago in Franco Zeffirelli's 1986 film version of Verdi's Otello starring Plácido Domingo. Among those paying homage to Díaz were Chita Rivera, Denyce Graves and Grace Bumbry. The fact that Kennedy Center Honors are lifetime achievement awards in the performing arts provided fodder for Saturday Night Live cast members past and present. They couldn't resist asking why their boss, SNL creator, producer and writer Lorne Michaels was getting one. In a mock version of Weekend Update, Kevin Nealon reported, "This evening in Washington, D.C., Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, who shall remain nameless, was presented with a Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of his incredibly generous contribution." Only after a long pause for laughter did Nealon add, "to American culture." Honoree Bette Midler has done it all: comedy, musicals, stage and screen. Her friend and The First Wives Club costar Goldie Hawn said Midler simply, "did not pay any attention to rejection." She added: "She sang. She danced. She shook her assets. She created The Divine Miss M." Billy Porter performed a Bette Midler medley and Kelli O'Hara sang Wind Beneath My Wings. Boxer turned songwriter and entrepreneur Berry Gordy turned an $800 loan from his family into a multimedia empire. The Motown hit machine brought the soul of Detroit to the rest of the world with artists like Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five and numerous others. Stevie Wonder recalled his first meeting with Gordy. "I was 11 years old and you said 'Ok, I heard you're good. What do you do?' And I said 'I play harmonica and I sing.' I said, 'As a matter of fact, I can sing better than Smokey Robinson.'" The Kennedy Center Honors is as much about artistic camaraderie as it is about celebrating creative excellence. After receiving his medallion, an emotional Berry Gordy told the audience, "I am so blessed to be in the company of the other honorees, this particular group of honorees whom I have known and admired for a long, long time." Gordy continued, "to get to meet them and talk to them and let them know how much I appreciate them has been a wonderful feeling for me tonight." - NPR |
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