Italian bond yields spike again after Berlusconi vote

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi faces renewed calls to resign after he failed to secure a parliamentary majority in a budget vote among MPs.

Berlusconi's coalition won 308 votes out of a total of 630 in a vote to approve Italy's national accounts for 2010, eight short of an absolute majority, as the Italian opposition increased calls for him to stand down. Italian 10-year bond yields, which had reached highs of 6.74% earlier on Tuesday before easing after the European Central Bank intervened with another round of bond purchases, rose to a new euro-era high of 6.75% in the aftermath of the vote. Opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani said Italy ran the risk of losing access to financial markets if Berlusconi did not step down...