Friends
The stock market was rocked by news that Greece confirmed that they will not be able to make payment on 1.55 billion euros to the IMF on Tuesday. Those IMF loans were the lifeline that had been cast for these many years, and now it is getting serious. The Greek government called for a vote on creditor measures, but officials are calling for a no vote. Reform for debt relief seems to be losing its luster this time. Greek leaders think that they can play hardball this time and that they won’t dare toss them out of the European Union. In addition to the Greek situation, China continues to see its stock market tank and news that Puerto Rico is basically bankrupt didn’t help the tone of the market either.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 350 points to finish the day at 17,596. The S&P 500 was down 43 points to close at 2057. Gold was up $5 to trade at $1179 per ounce, while oil was down $1.47 to trade at $58.16 per barrel WTI. Unfortunately, for the market averages we kept violating support levels today. We’ll keep you up to date on important levels as we go forward, as the S&P nears its 200 day moving average.
Greece is trying to play hardball. Is the exit really at hand or will they cave in the end? Remember, markets don’t like uncertainty, regardless how important Greece really is. And also remember, it’s not really Greece but the contagion that they could stir. In addition to the global concerns, we have a lot of domestic data this holiday shortened week (markets are closed Friday), including the non-farm payroll number which will come out on Thursday.
Needless to say there is a lot going on this week, and it’s difficult to go into too much detail on the Greece situation in our daily update (I’m not sure it would help anyway). We’ll keep you up to date on everything.
Have a nice evening everyone.
