Italy's political gridlock deepened on Wednesday with bickering between the main leftist party and a new anti-establishment party putting off the prospect of a new government any time soon, following shock elections that have spooked Europe.

Comedian turned populist firebrand Beppe Grillo said his Five Star Movement (M5S) would not endorse the Democratic Party (PD), which won the most votes in the elections on Sunday and Monday but not enough to form a majority in parliament.

EU president Herman Van Rompuy described 2012 as the "turning point" for the crisis-hit eurozone on Wednesday, but also urged bloc members to continue progress towards a banking union.

"2012 marked the turning point in the eurozone crisis," Van Rompuy told journalists during an official visit to Budapest.

U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase plans to eliminate 19,000 jobs by the end of 2014 as it seeks to rein in costs, the company said Tuesday in an investor presentation.

JPMorgan Chase intends the majority of the cuts, 15,000 to come from the mortgage banking division, said spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau.

European stocks slumped and the euro hit a near two-month low versus the dollar Tuesday as markets assessed the fallout of Italy's political impasse after elections in the indebted eurozone country.

Milan's FTSE MIB index shed 3.84 percent to 15,724.60 points in late morning deals, with a stalemate in Italy's parliament after a critical vote in which the real winner may be a protest party calling for a referendum on the euro.

The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday it had approved a $150-million loan for a giant hydropower plant to ease Nepal's chronic electricity shortages which lead to power cuts of up to 14 hours a day.

Electricity demand is growing at 10 percent a year but a lack of investment has resulted in short supply, with loadshedding forcing homes and businesses across the impoverished nation to use costly and polluting diesel generators.

Japan's parliament on Tuesday passed a $142 billion extra budget that forms a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to tackle the deflation that has dogged the economy for years.

The 13.1 trillion yen ($142 billion) package squeaked by the opposition-controlled upper house of parliament less than two weeks after the lower house approved the spending.

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Credit card giant MasterCard announced Monday the launch of a new digital payment system that lets people use a wide variety of devices including smartphones to spend their money.

The system, known as MasterPass, stores customers' banking and personal information in a "secure cloud" online where it is available for the moment of payment whether in a store on when browsing the Internet, the group said.

France and Germany urged the new government in Cyprus on Monday to negotiate a bailout quickly and welcomed the election of rightwinger Nicos Anastasiades as the president of the financially crippled EU state.

The leader of the right-wing Disy party won 57.5 percent of the vote in a second round run-off against communist-backed Stavros Malas, who polled 42.5 percent, to replace the only communist president in the European Union.

It was billed as China's Dubai: a cluster of sail-shaped skyscrapers on a man made island surrounded by tropical sea, the epitome of an unprecedented property boom that transformed skylines across the country.

But prices on Phoenix Island, off the palm-tree lined streets of the resort city of Sanya, have plummeted in recent months, exposing the hidden fragility of China's growing but sometimes unbalanced economy.