European shares jump on U.S. budget deal

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 1.3 pct, highest since May 2011

* Miners top gainers, copper up strongly

* Euro STOXX 50 volatility index drops 14 pct

By Tricia Wright

LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - European shares rallied across the board at the start of the new year after U.S. lawmakers approved a deal to prevent a fiscal crunch that had threatened growth in the world's largest economy.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives late on Tuesday finally approved a bill that will raise taxes on top U.S. earners, fulfilling President Barack Obama's re-election promise and avoiding $600 billion in broader-based tax hikes and spending cuts.

Asian shares rose strongly overnight on the news, while copper prices climbed 2.2 percent, with robust manufacturing data from top metals consumer China also aiding the mood.

The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 1.3 percent at 1,148.97 by 0914 GMT, hitting levels last seen in May 2011.

Uncertainty as to whether U.S. politicians would manage to hammer out a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff had cast a shadow over market sentiment in the last weeks of 2012.

"The U.S. news allows some apprehension to be reduced and although we have been confident of a deal being announced last minute we can now see more aggressive buying in today's session," Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers, said.

The Euro STOXX 50 Volatility Index, or VSTOXX, Europe's widely-used measure of stock market risk aversion, dropped 14 percent on Wednesday following the U.S. budget deal.

The VSTOXX - which is used to measure the cost of protecting stock holdings against corrections - tumbled to 18.45.

China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index held steady in December at 50.6, matching November's seven-month high and adding to evidence of a move back toward growth in the world's biggest metals consumer.

That helped basic resources stocks put in a solid showing on Wednesday, the top performing sector with a 3.1 percent advance.

The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 firmed 49.54 points, or 1.9 percent, to 2,685.47.

The Euro STOXX 50 climbed 13.8 percent in 2012, while the FTSEurofirst 300 rose 13.2 percent, boosted by bold measures from central banks to resolve Europe's debt crisis and revive global growth.

Among technical strategists there was optimism as to how 2013 would proceed.

"We've started the year on a positive note, and it does look like the market is pushing on towards 2,722," Barclays Capital's chief European technical strategist Phil Roberts said, referring to the Euro STOXX 50.

The 2,722 level in technical analysis is an equality target - the point at which the rally from the low in 2011 to the high in March 2012 is replicated off the low in June 2012.

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European shares jump on U.S. budget deal

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 1.3 pct, highest since May 2011

* Miners top gainers, copper up strongly

* Euro STOXX 50 volatility index drops 14 pct

By Tricia Wright

LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - European shares rallied across the board at the start of the new year after U.S. lawmakers approved a deal to prevent a fiscal crunch that had threatened growth in the world's largest economy.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives late on Tuesday finally approved a bill that will raise taxes on top U.S. earners, fulfilling President Barack Obama's re-election promise and avoiding $600 billion in broader-based tax hikes and spending cuts.

Asian shares rose strongly overnight on the news, while copper prices climbed 2.2 percent, with robust manufacturing data from top metals consumer China also aiding the mood.

The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 1.3 percent at 1,148.97 by 0914 GMT, hitting levels last seen in May 2011.

Uncertainty as to whether U.S. politicians would manage to hammer out a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff had cast a shadow over market sentiment in the last weeks of 2012.

"The U.S. news allows some apprehension to be reduced and although we have been confident of a deal being announced last minute we can now see more aggressive buying in today's session," Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers, said.

The Euro STOXX 50 Volatility Index, or VSTOXX, Europe's widely-used measure of stock market risk aversion, dropped 14 percent on Wednesday following the U.S. budget deal.

The VSTOXX - which is used to measure the cost of protecting stock holdings against corrections - tumbled to 18.45.

China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index held steady in December at 50.6, matching November's seven-month high and adding to evidence of a move back toward growth in the world's biggest metals consumer.

That helped basic resources stocks put in a solid showing on Wednesday, the top performing sector with a 3.1 percent advance.

The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 firmed 49.54 points, or 1.9 percent, to 2,685.47.

The Euro STOXX 50 climbed 13.8 percent in 2012, while the FTSEurofirst 300 rose 13.2 percent, boosted by bold measures from central banks to resolve Europe's debt crisis and revive global growth.

Among technical strategists there was optimism as to how 2013 would proceed.

"We've started the year on a positive note, and it does look like the market is pushing on towards 2,722," Barclays Capital's chief European technical strategist Phil Roberts said, referring to the Euro STOXX 50.

The 2,722 level in technical analysis is an equality target - the point at which the rally from the low in 2011 to the high in March 2012 is replicated off the low in June 2012.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

European shares jump on U.S. budget deal

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 1.3 pct, highest since May 2011

* Miners top gainers, copper up strongly

* Euro STOXX 50 volatility index drops 14 pct

By Tricia Wright

LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - European shares rallied across the board at the start of the new year after U.S. lawmakers approved a deal to prevent a fiscal crunch that had threatened growth in the world's largest economy.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives late on Tuesday finally approved a bill that will raise taxes on top U.S. earners, fulfilling President Barack Obama's re-election promise and avoiding $600 billion in broader-based tax hikes and spending cuts.

Asian shares rose strongly overnight on the news, while copper prices climbed 2.2 percent, with robust manufacturing data from top metals consumer China also aiding the mood.

The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 1.3 percent at 1,148.97 by 0914 GMT, hitting levels last seen in May 2011.

Uncertainty as to whether U.S. politicians would manage to hammer out a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff had cast a shadow over market sentiment in the last weeks of 2012.

"The U.S. news allows some apprehension to be reduced and although we have been confident of a deal being announced last minute we can now see more aggressive buying in today's session," Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers, said.

The Euro STOXX 50 Volatility Index, or VSTOXX, Europe's widely-used measure of stock market risk aversion, dropped 14 percent on Wednesday following the U.S. budget deal.

The VSTOXX - which is used to measure the cost of protecting stock holdings against corrections - tumbled to 18.45.

China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index held steady in December at 50.6, matching November's seven-month high and adding to evidence of a move back toward growth in the world's biggest metals consumer.

That helped basic resources stocks put in a solid showing on Wednesday, the top performing sector with a 3.1 percent advance.

The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 firmed 49.54 points, or 1.9 percent, to 2,685.47.

The Euro STOXX 50 climbed 13.8 percent in 2012, while the FTSEurofirst 300 rose 13.2 percent, boosted by bold measures from central banks to resolve Europe's debt crisis and revive global growth.

Among technical strategists there was optimism as to how 2013 would proceed.

"We've started the year on a positive note, and it does look like the market is pushing on towards 2,722," Barclays Capital's chief European technical strategist Phil Roberts said, referring to the Euro STOXX 50.

The 2,722 level in technical analysis is an equality target - the point at which the rally from the low in 2011 to the high in March 2012 is replicated off the low in June 2012.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Budget Cuts for State Courts Risk Rights, Critics Say

“The justice system’s funding has been decreasing in constant dollars for at least two decades,” said David Boies, co-chairman of a commission formed by the American Bar Association to study court budget issues. “We are now at the point where funding failures are not merely causing inconvenience, annoyances and burdens; the current funding failures are resulting in the failure to deliver basic justice.”

Wayne and Kristy Haggie of Nashua, N.H., would agree. In June last year, they persuaded a judge to grant them visitation rights with their two children. Ms. Haggie’s parents had assumed child-raising duties during a financial rough patch for the Haggies, and then refused to give the toddlers back. With the judge’s ruling, the Haggies assumed that they would be seeing the children again immediately and regaining full custody before long. They borrowed $500 from Mr. Haggie’s relatives for a trip to Wal-Mart to buy the toddlers clothes and supplies.

“We got everything set,” Mr. Haggie said. “And then we sat there.”

The judge’s order was not mailed for three months — an eternity in the life of a child. The paperwork emerged from the courthouse only after the Haggies’ lawyer, Kirk Simoneau, joined with other New Hampshire lawyers to sue the state over budget issues and court delays. Between that delay and others while setting up visitation arrangements, the Haggies say, they have lost precious bonding time and been deprived of important moments.

“We missed our daughter’s first steps,” Mr. Haggie said. “We missed her first day of preschool.”

While most state agencies are feeling a squeeze, legislatures squeeze courts at the risk of violating the access to the courts guaranteed in criminal and civil matters by the Constitution, said Steven Zack, a former president of the American Bar Association. Set up to be coequal branches of government, the courts are nonetheless dependent on the legislative and executive branches.

“The real failure of the legislatures is to treat the courts as another bridge or another library,” Mr. Zack said. “It is not another bridge or another library. Without a working court system, our very democracy is at stake.”

The bar association created the Task Force on the Preservation of the Justice System, led by Mr. Boies and Theodore B. Olson, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush, to study financial issues and recommend courses of action.

“There has not been a natural constituency for the justice system,” Mr. Boies said. The rule of law, civil rights and the market economy are all profoundly affected by the courts, he noted, so, “Whatever is important to you, it’s ultimately the justice system that is protecting it and advancing it.”

While dockets are bulging with foreclosures and other pressing legal matters, 42 states have reduced their judicial budgets in the previous three fiscal years, with cuts in some jurisdictions totaling more than 12 percent. In the last three years, 34 states have laid off court employees, 39 have stopped filling clerk vacancies and 23 have reduced court operating hours, according to the National Center for State Courts.

State courts hear 95 percent of the nation’s legal cases, so the cuts are affecting the level where most people encounter the justice system, said Rebecca Love Kourlis, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice who is executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver and co-author of a new book about the plight of the nation’s civil courts.

“For most Americans, Lady Justice lives in the halls of state courts,” she said. “Whether it is a divorce, traffic ticket, foreclosure or personal injury case that draws someone into the system, they will find themselves in state court.”

State courts around the country have found many ways, some unusual, to deal with the cuts. In Mount Gilead, Ohio, the Morrow County Municipal Court, like many others, is now working a four-day week. And that is not as large a hardship as the county experienced in 2009, when the court announced that it could not take new case filings for three months, until the end of the budget cycle, unless litigants brought their own paper for the court to use. Money for paper had run out.

“Even though paper is inexpensive, it’s still enough to shut us down,” said Judge Lee W. McClelland. Ultimately, he said, people in the community donated enough paper so that “we were able to limp through the year.”

“We also got about three rolls of toilet paper,” he said. “Obviously, they were confused about what kind of paper we needed.”

The courts are now looking at electronic filing to avoid the situation in the future.

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