Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Greece, Troika Work on Final Rescue Draft. Greece’s government and international creditors are working on the final draft of an agreement on budget and structural measures needed to free up a second aid package, a Greek official said. The document is being drafted at a meeting between Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and representatives of Greece’s creditors and will be discussed by political leaders later in the day, the government official told reporters in Athens today on customary condition of anonymity. Caretaker Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos plans to convene the nation’s political leaders to seek consensus on the cuts required for a bailout, as unions called a strike to protest and European leaders pressed Greece to reach a deal. Papademos hasn’t yet set a time for the meeting with leaders. While the prime minister and party chiefs have agreed to make further cuts this year equal to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, they have yet to close gaps over measures demanded by creditors for a 130 billion-euro ($171 billion) rescue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “time is running out” to reach an accord, while unions derided the conditions as “blackmail.” “It is clear we are going into another drama for Greece with many questions unanswered,” Patrick Legland, head of research at Societe Generale SA, told Bloomberg Television today. “It’s kind of a catch-22 where they have to reduce their deficit but there is no growth. It’s very tricky.”
  
• Bernanke: 8.3% Unemployment Rate Understates Job Market Weakness. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the 8.3 percent rate of unemployment in January understates weakness in the U.S. labor market. “It is very important to look not just at the unemployment rate, which reflects only people who are actively seeking work,” Bernanke said today in response to questions at a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee in Washington. “There are also a lot of people who are either out of the labor force because they don’t think they can find work” or in part- time jobs." The percentage of the unemployed who have remained without work for 27 weeks or more rose to 42.9 percent in January from 42.5 percent in December, the Labor Department said.
• Oil Rises on Weaker Dollar After Bernanke Says Jobs Market Not Healthy. Oil rose as the dollar weakened after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that the jobs market is far from healthy. West Texas Intermediate crude gained at a faster pace than North Sea Brent in London, reducing the European benchmark’s premium over New York oil for the first time in nine days. The dollar fell on Bernanke’s comments and signs that Greece is near a debt agreement. “Bernanke made some pretty bearish statements and the dollar tanked,” said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “Once the dollar dropped you saw WTI rebound.” Oil for March delivery rose $1.77, or 1.8 percent, to $98.68 a barrel at 1:03 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $95.84. Prices have slipped 15 cents this year.
• U.S. Job Openings Rise by the Most in Almost a Year. Job openings in the U.S. increased in December by the most in almost a year, showing employers are gaining confidence the economy will keep growing in 2012. The number of positions waiting to be filled climbed by 258,000, the biggest gain since February 2011, to 3.38 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Excluding government agencies, openings at private employers climbed to the highest level since August 2008.
• Banks Pay Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures. Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe. Lenders have routinely delayed or blocked such transactions, known as short sales, in which they accept less from a buyer than the seller’s outstanding loan. Now banks have decided the deals are faster and less costly than foreclosures, which have slowed in response to regulatory probes of abusive practices. Banks are nudging potential sellers by pre-approving deals, streamlining the closing process, forgoing their right to pursue unpaid debt and in some cases providing large cash incentives, said Bill Fricke, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.
• China Will Increase Domestic Diesel, Gasoline Prices Tomorrow, NDRC Says. China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, raised domestic fuel tariffs for the first time in 10 months to spur production by refiners including China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co. Retail gasoline and diesel cost 300 yuan ($47.58) a metric ton more starting today, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website yesterday. The increase is equivalent to 0.22 yuan a liter on average nationwide for gasoline and 0.26 yuan a liter for diesel, the nation’s top economic planning agency said.
• UBS(UBS) Posts 76% Drop in Quarterly Profit.
• Credit VROOMs: Auto Loans in 30 Seconds. Three years ago, credit was so tight that the owner of a legal firm with a $400,000 salary and a very good credit score of more than 700 couldn’t get financed to buy the car he wanted from Michael Mosser’s dealership. “The world is upside-down compared to then,” said Mosser, general manager of Chevrolet and Cadillac stores in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Today, somebody with a 500 credit score, I can get approved and in a Malibu,” which starts at $22,110. Lenders resisted extending credit to car buyers when the mortgage market collapsed in 2008, helping push General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy and sending U.S. sales to the lowest point in almost three decades. Amid a slow housing market, auto demand is rebounding, spurring lenders from Bank of America Corp. to Capital One Financial Corp. to approve buyers faster and at better rates to compete for a piece of an expanding market. “Banks have had to look elsewhere for growth opportunities, and auto has been one of the nice spaces over the last couple years,” Curt Beaudouin, a bank analyst for Moody’s Investors Service in New York, said in a phone interview.
• Egyptian Generals Said to Drop Meetings With U.S. Lawmakers. An Egyptian military delegation visiting Washington canceled talks with U.S. senators because the group was called home amid a dispute over charges against American pro-democracy workers, according to Senate aides. The generals were scheduled to meet as soon as yesterday with senators including Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the panel, according to two Senate aides familiar with the cancellation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment publicly.
  

MarketWatch:

• Gold Futures Jump on Bernanke, Greece. Gold futures gained Tuesday, rising as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave testimony to Congress and Greece reportedly neared a deal that would pave the way to more aid. Gold futures for April delivery GC2J +1.40% rose $14.60, or 0.9%, to $1,739.50 an ounce on the Comex division of New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Europe in Grip of Uncommon Deep Freeze. (pics)
  

CNBC.com:

• After US Oil Snub, Canada Focuses on China.

Zero Hedge:

• China Bail Out Europe? Quite The Opposite Actualy, As Chinese Banks Cut European Exposure.
• Merkel Summarizes The Situation.
  

ABC Newsa:

• 'Anonymous' Hacks Personal Info of Oakland Officials. 'Anonymous' has released the personal information of some of Oakland's top city officials online in response to clashes between Occupy Oakland and the police.

Washington Free Beacon:

• Deepak Chopra, Russell Simmons To Fundraise For Obama In NYC. Prospective partygoers can choose from three levels of tickets, “Event Chair” ($35,800), “Event Host” ($10,000), or for those with shallower pockets, “Gala Attendee” ($1,000 a piece). Their massive wealth notwithstanding, Simmons and Chopra were both vocal supporters of the “Occupy” movements, and were named to TheBlaze.com’s list of the “Top Ten Richest Celebrities Supporting ‘Occupy Wall Street.’”

Reuters:

• US Gasoline Demand Down Again With High Prices - MasterCard(MA). U.S. motorists drove fewer miles last week as continuing high prices kept consumers away from the pump, MasterCard said in its weekly SpendingPulse report on Tuesday. Retail gasoline demand fell 5.3 percent from a year ago and 2.8 percent from the previous week, the report said. Prices rose by 8 cents on average to $3.47 per gallon, 11.9 percent higher than the same week last year. The four-week average demand fell for the 46th straight time last week, down 4.9 percent compared with a year ago.

Financial Times:

• Beijing Office Rents Outstrip New York. Prime office rents in Beijing’s central business district rose 75 per cent last year, the fastest globally, and up from a 48 per cent increase in 2010, according to the survey. It now costs $130 a year for a square foot of a top-grade office in Beijing, compared with $239 in London’s West End and $120 in midtown Manhattan.

Telegraph:

• An orderly EMU break-up, à la Français. Salut souverainistes. For those wanting more details on the euro break-up plan drafted by French economists, here is the link to the L’Observatoire de L’Europe website. A few extracts, loosely translated: "The obstinate determination of governments to take us by forced march deeper into the euro impasse can only lead to the general aggravation of the economic situation in Europe." "Even though our American and Chinese competitors have an interest in the survival of the single currency, the euro is condemned to an uncontrollable explosion sooner or late".
• Debt Crisis and Greek Debt Talks: Live.
  

Der Spiegel:

• It's Time to End the Greek Rescue Farce. For the past two years, Greece has wrangled with the euro-zone states and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over its so-called "rescue." Austerity measures have been agreed to, aid has been paid and private creditors have been forced to accept "voluntary" debt haircuts. Despite all this, Greece is in even worse shape today than it was then. Its economy is shrinking, the debt ratio is rising and the country and its banks have been cut off from capital markets. There isn't even the slightest sign that the situation might improve. Something has gone very wrong with this rescue.

Globe and Mail:

• Rogers, BCE Vying For A Bite of Apple's(AAPL) iTV. Canada’s largest telecommunications companies are squaring off in a fight about the future of television. Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. are in talks with Apple Inc. (AAPL-Q469.385.411.17%) to become Canadian launch partners for its much-hyped Apple iTV, a product that has the potential to revolutionize TV viewing by turning conventional televisions into gigantic iPads.

Shanghai Daily:

• Shanghai Existing Home Sales Decline to 5-Year Low. SALES of existing homes dropped to a five-year low in Shanghai last month and more than half of the transactions involved properties that were sold at not more than 900,000 yuan (US$142,630). A total of 4,200 previously occupied units, mainly houses, were sold across the city in January, the lowest monthly transactions recorded since 2007, according to data released yesterday by Century 21 China Real Estate. The sales marked a fall of 45 percent from December and a plunge of 80 percent from same month a year earlier. "The significant retreat was mainly a result of the Spring Festival holiday but it was still a record low volume if we compared it to figures in the same period in previous years," said Eric Luo, an analyst with Century 21.