Friday, July 10, 2015

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:     
  • Europe Weighs Greek Proposal as Tsipras Seeks Lawmaker Support. France praised a Greek package of reforms while other nations voiced skepticism, as lawmakers in Athens prepared to debate whether to support Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s plan to access a bailout of at least 53.5 billion euros ($60 billion). The packet of spending cuts, pension savings and tax increases was being studied on Friday by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank after it was submitted late the previous day. While the German government said it will wait for the institutions to make their assessment, French President Francois Hollande said in a rare Twitter post that the reform proposals were “serious, credible” and demonstrated Greece’s determination to stay in the euro area. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite voiced pessimism, saying the new offer “will really not be enough,” Reuters reported.
  • Greek Bank Restructuring May Be Unavoidable Even With Bailout. Greece’s last-minute efforts to secure a 53.5 billion euro ($60 billion) bailout may have come too late to save the nation’s banks and their bondholders. “Even with an agreement between the government and Europe, bank senior debt may need to be bailed in,” said Michael Doran, a partner at law firm White & Case in London. “Additional recapitalization tools may also be required given the scale of the problems.” Doran worked on the restructuring of Cypriot banks in 2013, which included seizing nearly half of all deposits over 100,000 euros.
  • Greek Skeptics Say Market Rally Masks Lingering Risks of Failure. While European markets show signs of optimism that Greece can reach a deal with its creditors as soon as this weekend, not everyone is ready to call time on the saga. Fitch Ratings’s global head of sovereigns says the two sides remain far apart. And strategists at Societe Generale SA still see a 65 percent chance that Greece will leave the euro. “Even with the program that we saw submitted last night, we think it’ still going to be quite difficult to reach an agreement,” Fitch’s James McCormack said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The two sides are further apart than ever. In the Greek economy the hole that they’ve been digging is deeper now so the adjustment on the fiscal side is going to have to be that much bigger.”
  • China's Richest People Just Lost About $100 Billion in a Month. Market Seesaw Reshapes Global Wealth Landscape. It takes an iron stomach to be one of the richest people in China. Billionaires from China and Hong Kong who rank among the 400 wealthiest people on earth gained $121 billion this year through June 12, 2015, when equity markets peaked there. They lost almost $100 billion as shares plummeted this month, including $30 billion at the start of the week, before the rally on Thursday and Friday. ``I hope these people realize that it's just paper money,'' said Niklas Hageback, who helps oversee about $202 million at Hong Kong-based money management firm Valkyria Kapital. ``I hope for their own personal mental health that they have been able to realize that. Otherwise, if you just start to look at your own income statements, the losses are truly horrendous.''
  • China Slashes Vehicle Sales Forecast to 3% Amid Stocks Rout. China slashed its forecast for vehicle sales in the world’s largest market, projecting deliveries to expand at the slowest pace in four years amid a stock-market rout that threatens to dent consumer sentiment. Total vehicle deliveries including trucks and buses will probably rise by 3 percent this year, down from the 7 percent projected in January, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Friday. That would be the smallest increase since 2011, when the government unwound stimulus measures unleashed in the wake of the global financial crisis.
  • Volkswagen Said to Give out $161 Million to China Dealers. The funding will be paid to distributors selling VW brand cars made by the company’s joint venture with China FAW Group Corp., according to two people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Volkswagen, the biggest foreign automaker by sales in China, is the latest company to extend financial subsidies to distributors hit by the slowing economy and a stock market that erased $4 trillion in market value in less than a month. BMW AG earlier this year agreed to pay subsidies to its distributors in China to help cover losses after retailers stopped ordering cars from the manufacturer.  
  • China's Stock Market Selloff Explained in Six Charts.
  • Putin Calls U.S. Debt ‘Serious Problem’ as He Defends Greece. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of dangers to the global economy from U.S. borrowing while saying Greece isn’t solely to blame for its debt crisis. “It’s a serious problem not just for the United States but for the whole world economy,” Putin told reporters Friday in the Russian city of Ufa in response to a question on the prospects of the biggest developing nations. “Debt exceeds gross domestic product there. 
  • Canada Jobs Loss in June Ratifies Faltering-Economy View. Canadian employment fell by 6,400 in June on the biggest decline in part-time work in more than four years, sustaining the view the economy is losing steam and may require another jolt of stimulus from the central bank. The unemployment rate remained at 6.8 percent for a fifth month, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa. Part-time work fell 71,200, exceeding the 64,800 gain in full-time work. Quebec posted a decline of 33,300, the most since May 2005.
  • India’s Factory Output Misses Estimates as Consumer Goods Fall. India’s factory output rose less than economists estimated, boosting pressure on policy makers to revive investment in Asia’s third-largest economy. Industrial production rose 2.7 percent in May from a year earlier after a revised 3.4 percent gain in April, the Central Statistical Office said in a statement on Friday. That compares with a 4 percent rise predicted by the median of 32 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Manufacturing output climbed 2.2 percent, electricity 6 percent, mining 2.8 percent and capital goods production rose 1.8 percent. Consumer goods fell 1.6 percent. 
  • Europe Stocks End Dizzying Week With Biggest Gain in Three Years. Investors got quite the ride with a week of almost symmetrical contrasts, culminating in the largest two-day rally since November 2011. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 1.4 percent this week amid speculation that Greece may finally secure a fresh bailout. Shares had earlier tumbled to the lowest level since February, flirting with a correction, as Greek voters rejected creditors’ demands. Stocks wrapped up the week with a 2 percent gain.
  • IEA Says Oil Prices May Fall Even Further Before Supply Fades in 2016. (video)
    Oil prices may fall further as the world remains “massively oversupplied,” before markets tighten in 2016 when output growth outside OPEC grinds to a halt, according to the International Energy Agency.
  • Traders Dump Energy Hedges Amid Another Low Hurdle for Earnings. Investors see history repeating for energy companies this season, speculating that profit forecasts are again so low that there’s little need to hedge against a miss. Implied volatility on an exchange-traded fund tracking energy companies is at its lowest in 14 months versus another ETF mirroring the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The decline signals falling demand for options used to protect against losses in the shares. 
  • For Big Miners, the Pain's Only Likely to Get Worse. (graph) Overproduction and a weakening Chinese economy could put dividends at risk. Even after a bounce-back over the past two days, the Bloomberg World Mining Index of 79 producers has tumbled 61 percent from a 2011 peak as prices for iron ore, coal, copper, and other industrial metals collapsed. 
  • Yellen Maintains Outlook for First Rate Increase in 2015. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she still expects to raise interest rates this year and repeated that the subsequent pace of increases will be gradual. “I expect that it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy,” Yellen said in her first public remarks since the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. “But I want to emphasize that the course of the economy and inflation remains highly uncertain, and unanticipated developments could delay or accelerate this first step,” she said in the text of a speech Friday in Cleveland.
  • Plosser: A Lot of Desire for Federal Reserve Rate Hike. (video)
  • Confederate Flag Removed From Capitol in South Carolina. (video)
Fox News: 
  • OPM director Katherine Archuleta resigns in wake of data breach. (video) U.S. personnel chief Katherine Archuleta resigned Friday in the wake of massive data breach that allowed hackers to steal the records of more than 21 million people under her watch, Fox News confirmed. Archuleta submitted her resignation to President Obama Friday morning. Her resignation is effective at the close of business today.
ZeroHedge: 
Telegraph:
ZDF TV:
  • Tsipras's Proposals Run Against Greek People's Will: Brinkhaus. Ralph Brinkhaus, deputy chairman of German Chancellor Angel Merkel's Christian Union bloc in parliament, says he doesn't see how Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's govt can implement proposed reforms that were rejected by a majority of Greeks. "It's interesting that he seems to be offering the EU and his partners what his own people rejected in the referendum on Sunday," he said. "We have to ask ourselves two questions: what's on this reform list and how credible is it that this reform list will actually be implemented?"
China Auto New:
  • Volkswagen's China Partner Says Co. 1H Sales 'Fail'. Changes in the market structure was "beyond our expectations," citing FAW-VW's board secretary Sun Guowang. FAW-VW 1H sales fell 11.3% y/y, according to the report. Sales performance was not up to expectations, he said.

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