Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Euro-Area Finance Ministers Deny Greece Bailout Extension. Euro-area finance chiefs rejected a Greek request for an extension of the country’s bailout, piling more pressure on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government as lines formed outside ATMs in Greece amid public concern the financial system will go into meltdown. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of the so-called Eurogroup, told reporters after a meeting in Brussels Saturday that his Greek colleague, Yanis Varoufakis, had requested a one-month extension. But with “no comprehensive package agreed” to by finance chiefs, the Greek government faces the expiry of its aid program on Tuesday night without any future financing in place.

• Door Closing to Greece as Finance Chiefs Scorn Referendum. Euro-area finance chiefs poured scorn on the Greek government’s decision to call a referendum on the terms of the country’s bailout and said the door was closing to any further discussion on resolving a standoff over aid. Finance chiefs from 18 euro nations said they would grill their Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, on what his government proposed after the sudden announcement of a referendum upended their work on the way forward for Greece. They are meeting in Brussels on Saturday hours after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a July 5 ballot on whether Greece should accept the demands of the country’s creditors.

• Greeks Line Up at Banks and Drain ATMs as Tsipras Calls Vote. Two senior Greek retail bank executives said as many as 500 of the country’s more than 7,000 ATMs had run out of cash as of Saturday morning, and that some lenders may not be able to open on Monday unless there was an emergency liquidity injection from the Bank of Greece. A central bank spokesman said it was making efforts to supply money to the system. Some banks were placing limits in daily bank note and ATM transactions. Yiota Kardogianni, a manager at a branch of Piraeus Bank SA, said cash withdrawals were limited at 3,000 euros ($3,350) daily and ATM withdrawals at 600 euros. Alpha Bank AE had set a daily limit of 5,000 euros for most of its branches since last week.

• China Stocks Plunge Most Since 1996 as Bubble Warnings Rise. China’s stocks capped their steepest two-week plunge since December 1996 as investors who use borrowed money to buy equities cut holdings and concern grew that valuations were excessive. The Shanghai Composite Index sank 7.4 percent on Friday, taking its decline from its June 12 high to 19 percent, on the cusp of a bear market. Technology, industrial and material companies led declines in the two-week period, with Neusoft Corp., China Railway Construction Corp. and Hainan Mining Co. tumbling more than 30 percent.

• China Cuts Interest Rates to a Record Low After Stocks Slump. China’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rate to a record low and lowered reserve-requirement ratios for some lenders after stocks plunged and local government bond sales drained liquidity. In the fourth reduction since November, the one-year lending rate will be reduced by 25 basis points to 4.85 percent effective June 28, the People’s Bank of China said on its website Saturday. The one-year deposit rate will fall by 25 basis points to 2 percent, while reserve ratios for some lenders including city commercial and rural commercial banks will be cut by 50 basis points, according to the statement.

• Terror Acts Show Extremists’ Global Reach, Coalition Challenges. Terror attacks
  across three continents on Friday demonstrate Islamic State’s influence and wide reach, as well as the difficulties of countering its use of the Internet to galvanize and inspire global violence. Attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait left at least 65 dead, three days after a June 23 audio message by the group’s spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, urging followers to make the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, being celebrated now, a time “of disasters for the infidels.”

• Treasury Yields Approaching Year High as Jobs Take Center Stage. Treasury bond investors seeking more clarity about when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates may get more than they bargained for in next week’s employment report. Yields on the benchmark 10-year note are approaching the highest level of the year with economists forecasting another strong month of job gains. That has bond bears betting the data will give the Fed enough reason to raise its key lending rate before the end of the year.

MarketWatch.com: 

• Here’s why any Greek debt deal will amount to nothing.

Fox News: 

• Tourists flee Tunisa after deadly attack on beach resort.

CNBC:

• Worse than the Supremes: Obamacare economics.

ZeroHedge:

• Eurozone Rejects Greek Bailout Extension: All Bailout Programs Expire On June 30, Referendum Moot.

• EU Officials Unleash The Fearmongery: "The Crisis Has Commenced".

• FX Brokerages Move To "Close Only" Ahead Of Monday Open.

• "This Is A Sad Decision": Europe Responds To The Greek Referendum, Which Has One Massive Problem.

• Greek PM Who Was Fired For Referendum Bluff Tells Zero Hedge "It's Different This Time".

• It's 2 In The Morning And Greeks Are Lining Up At ATMs; Alpha Limits Online Banking. (pic)

• Thanks Michelle: Black Market In Food Items Springs Up In US Schools.

• Varoufakis: Creditor Proposal Offers "No Hope," Greece At "Historic Moment".

• Dijsselbloem Says Greek "Program" Will Expire On Tuesday Night, Offer Won't Exist At Referendum Time.

• A Desperate China Cuts Key Policy Rates After Stock Market Crash; "It's Just Like 1987".

• "Critical" Debt "Domino Chain" Threatens To Destabilize China's Financial System, SocGen Says. (graph)

• 5 Things To Ponder: While We Wait On Greece. (graph)

• America's Obamacare Nightmare Is Just Beginning.

• "Blood On The Streets" - Bonds Battered, Stocks Slammed As Greece Suddenly "Matters". (graph)

Business Insider:

• Battlefield setbacks aren't stopping ISIS from killing on a massive scale.

• ISIS is manufacturing weapons at an alarming rate.

• China is a 'bona fide financial bubble'.

Telegraph: 

• ‘Rats leaving a sinking ship’ as China’s equity bubble implodes. Margin lending and the stimulus that will never come spook China's stock markets into correction territory.

• Greece crisis live: creditors told the 'damage will be permanent' as bail-out extension refused. European finance ministers say they will not extend the country's bail-out deal on June 30 - a decison which could trigger a banking collapse within days. 

Euro am Sonntag:

• Greece Has 'No Plan' for Turnaround, Fuest Says. Govt doesn't have strategy to help Greek economy get back in shape, Clemens Fuest of ZEW says in an interview. Has diluted planned reforms; "very problematic". Greece needs to lower prices, wages to regain competitiveness. Forcing losses on debt via haircut won't work unless accompanied by reforms.