Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:     

• EU Warns Russia of More Sanctions. (video)

• Greece Locked in Talks With Creditors in Search for Compromise. Greece and its official creditors are extending talks over the weekend aimed at reaching a deal at a Monday meeting of finance ministers in Brussels on future financing for Europe’s most-indebted country. Greece’s new anti-austerity government led by Alexis Tsipras wants to exit the current bailout program, which it blames for the country’s economic hardships, and replace it with a new plan while obtaining bridge financing to avoid defaulting on its international debt. The plan, which would include raising wages and reinstating government workers, is not getting much support from the country’s creditors. “You can only spend money when you have it,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who also presides over euro-area finance ministers’ meetings, told reporters in The Hague on Friday. “Greece wants a lot but has very little money to do that. That’s really a problem.”   

• Italy's Economy Fails to Rebound. Italy’s economy stagnated in the three months through December, failing to rebound from its longest recession on record. Gross domestic product was unchanged from the previous quarter when it dropped 0.1 percent, national statistics institute Istat said in a preliminary report in Rome Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 19 economists called for a drop of 0.1 percent. From a year earlier, GDP fell 0.3 percent.

• European Stocks Advance With DAX as German Economy Accelerates. European stocks climbed with Germany’s DAX Index after a report showed the nation’s economy accelerated. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.6 percent to 377.07 at the close of trading, paring gains of as much as 0.8 percent.

• Wall Street’s Bond Dealers Brace for Top-Rated Credit to Tumble. Wall Street’s biggest bond dealers are finding less and less to like about top-rated U.S. corporate bonds. So much so that they’re betting against some of them, with primary dealers turning the most bearish in 2015 on debt maturing in five to 10 years last week, Federal Reserve data show. The detail on banks’ more-granular positions only covers January and February because the Fed just started reporting it. In any event, it appears the fervent flight to the safety of high-quality corporate debt is coming to an abrupt end.

• U.S. Rigs Are Being Idled, but the Oil Boom Is Not Ending. The U.S. drilling frenzy is over. What’s not is the boom in oil production. While companies have idled 151 rigs in five shale formations since reaching a peak of 1,157 in October, they’ll need to park another 200 for growth to stall, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Output there will reach a record 5.47 million barrels a day in March even though the number of rigs exploring for oil is the lowest since 2013.

Wall Street Journal: 

• Nigerian President Wants U.S. Troops to Fight Boko Haram. Goodluck Jonathan Says Militants Have Ties to Islamic State. President Goodluck Jonathan said Friday that he has asked the U.S. military to dispatch troops to northern Nigeria, the region where Islamist militants have captured territory, suggesting that Boko Haram had established links with Islamic State.

ZeroHedge:

• Patriot Act 2: Obama Executive Order Will Promote Sharing Of Confidential Information With Corporations.

• Fighting Rages After Ukraine "Ceasefire" Deal; Ukraine Ultranationalist Leader Rejects Peace Agreement.

• Chart Of The Day - Europe. (graph)

• 300 US Troops In Iraq Under "Severe Threat" After ISIS Seizes Nearby Town.

• UMich Consumer Confidence Tumbles, Biggest Miss On Record. (graph)

• China Creates Most Loans Since Lehman As M2 Growth Tumbles To Record Low. (graph)

• Global Deflation Exports To US Send Import Prices Tumbling Most Since Lehman. (graph)

Business Insider:

• Argentine President Kirchner is being formally investigated for alleged cover-up of 1994 bombing.

• 3 events Brian Williams is suspected of lying about.

• A major investment bank says Labour will 'seriously interfere with the private sector' and turn the UK into France if it wins the election.

• Here are the loopholes in the Ukraine peace agreement.

• Look at the world from Putin's perspective, and he is clearly winning.

@LOggOl:

• LARGE RUSSIAN MILITARY CONVOY SEEN MOVING TOWARDS UKRAINE, CRIMEA RESIDENTS SAY.

AFP:

• Dijsselbloem 'pessimistic' about a quick deal with Greece. "At this stage I'm very pessimistic about it," Dijsselbloem told the NOS public broadcaster when asked whether he thought concrete steps will be taken on Monday at the talks between Greece and its fellow single currency countries in the Eurogroup. "The Greeks have sky-high ambitions. The possibilities, given the state of the Greek economy, are limited," said Dijsselbloem, who is the Dutch finance minister, ahead of a cabinet meeting on Friday.

@Conflict_Report:

• conomic conditions are “getting closer and closer to those where it makes sense to really start thinking seriously about starting this process of normalization,” Williams told the FT in an interview.
  The newspaper said Williams said the Fed might have to hike borrowing costs "much more dramatically" than otherwise if it waited too long, saying it was better to move sooner and raise rates "gradually, thoughtfully." - See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/latestnews/2015/02/10/Feds-Williams-says-rate-hike-getting-closer-and-closer-FT#sthash.8HLK2bPs.dpuf
  Economic conditions are “getting closer and closer to those where it makes sense to really start thinking seriously about starting this process of normalization,” Williams told the FT in an interview.
  The newspaper said Williams said the Fed might have to hike borrowing costs "much more dramatically" than otherwise if it waited too long, saying it was better to move sooner and raise rates "gradually, thoughtfully." - See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/latestnews/2015/02/10/Feds-Williams-says-rate-hike-getting-closer-and-closer-FT#sthash.8HLK2bPs.dpuf
  Creating a pretext for a prolonged war – Russians launch massive missile attack on Luhansk.

Telegraph:

• Germany's surprise growth spurt leaves slowing France behind. GDP growth in the eurozone's two economic giants diverged in the final quarter of the year, with German GDP growth picking up while the French economy ground to a halt

The Guardian:

• Minsk ceasefire in balance while fighting continues in eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting continued near two cities in eastern Ukraine on Friday, raising further doubts about whether a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk has any chance of success. According to the Minsk plan the ceasefire will start on Sunday but, rather than abating, the conflictappeared to escalate on Friday.