Markets Overnight:
Equity markets pared losses in Europe and strengthened to new heights in the US, as the Dow and Nasdaq reached highs last seen in May 2008 and December 2000 respectfully. The US economic giant has continued to stomp out thunderously good economic data, which has done well to turn the market to greener patches.
Our ever so reliable European officials say they are planning to finalize the Greece deal by this Monday, however, even if they do, Greece will still have to complete another 24 required actions before month-end. Thinking that is enough on their ‘broken plate’, they will also have to restructure €200billion in debt, and all this before the deadline debt payment of €14.5billion on March 20 – a far stretch at best...but I remain ‘optimistic’ as the markets continue to rally in Asia this morning.
The rating agency Moody’s, reported they have the intention of cutting the credit ratings of 17 global and 117 Euro financial institutions yesterday.
Company News:
Impala Platinum’s [IMP] striking workers and the Zimbabwean royalty negotiations which is said to have the capability to bankrupt their Zimbabwe operations, pushed the share price down to close at a new low last seen in 2009, breaking a long standing horizontal support.
Woolworths [WHL] has continued to churn out strong growth in the market as they reported a 35% rise in their first half profit.
Today:
A mix bag of data today after the onslaught of US data yesterday. Germany PPI reported early this morning, showing what the inflation is looking like on the producer level.
The Euro reports their Current Account and Construction output, while the US reports their inflation figures later this afternoon. Keep an eye out for the US Leading Indicator, which is expected to increase slightly.
Why Greeks break plates? Follow the below links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_smashing
http://gogreece.about.com/cs/folkloreevents/a/smashingplates.htm
