Ancient GREEK poet Archestratus is widely considered to have laid the foundations for the art of gastronomy in 4th century BC Syracuse. His culinary ...
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How the world sees Greece
Friday, December 18, 2015
10 things you need to know before the opening bell (spy, spx, qqq, dia, aapl, gsk, bmy, ms)
Here is what you need to know. THE BANK OF JAPAN SAID IT'S BUYING MORE ETFS. At Friday's meeting, the Bank of Japan kept the size of its quantitative-easing program unchanged at around 80 trillion yen per year, but it said it would increase its ETF and REIT purchases, and it extended the maturities on its bond purchases. The BOJ will "purchase exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Japan real-estate investment trusts (J-REITs) so that their amounts outstanding will increase at annual paces of about 3 trillion yen and about 3.2 trillion yen respectively." In addition, the central bank will extend the maturities on its Japanese Government Bond purchases to seven to 12 years, from seven to 10 years, from the beginning of 2016. The changes came at a vote of 6 to 3. The Japanese yen is stronger by 1.1% at 121.81 per dollar. SPAIN IS GOING TO THE POLLS. Spain's general election takes place Sunday. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party is expected to lose its majority despite a rebound in the Spanish economy as unemployment remains high. The Podemos party, which has been compared to Greece's Syriza party, is expected to pick up the most seats in the election, Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman says. Spain's 10-year yield is down 5 basis points at 1.68%. CHINESE HOME PRICES ROSE. China's National Bureau of Statistics says home prices in China's 70 largest cities rose 0.9% year-over-year in November, improving from the 0.1% YoY gain in October. Prices in Beijing (+7.7%), Shanghai (+13.1%), and Shenzhen (+43.9%) saw strong YoY gains. The 0.3% month-over-month advance was good for a seventh straight monthly gain. China's yuan ended little changed at 6.4811 per dollar and remains near its weakest levels since July 2011. UKRAINE DEFAULTED ON ITS BOND PAYMENT TO RUSSIA. Ukraine missed the Sunday deadline for its $3 billion bond payment to Russia. The default comes after Russia refused to participate in a restructuring of Ukraine's debt earlier this year, saying it should receive more favorable terms as a sovereign lender. Bloomberg says, "Kiev's government is barred from paying Russia back in full under the conditions of the restructuring agreement with private creditors and a $17.5 billion IMF aid package secured this year to keep the country's economy afloat." CRUDE OIL IS PLUNGING. West Texas Intermediate is down another 1.2% Friday morning, at $34.53 a barrel. Recent selling has dropped the energy component to levels last seen in February 2009. APPLE PAY IS GOING TO CHINA. Apple says it will team up with China UnionPay to take its Apple Pay product to China in 2016. China UnionPay operates the interbank clearing and settlement system in China, and says it has 5 billion credit cards in circulation and 6 million vendors. The deal must still be cleared by Chinese regulators. GLAXOSMITHKLINE IS BUYING BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB'S HIV DRUGS. GlaxoSmithKline is paying an upfront $350 million for Bristol-Myers' HIV assets. The deal could result in additional payments of more than $1 billion, depending on whether certain milestones are met. "The addition of two potential first-in-class late-stage treatments and several promising early clinical development program strengthens ViiV Healthcare's pipeline and provides us with further new opportunities for growth," said David Redfern, chief strategy officer at GSK and chairman of ViiV Healthcare. MORGAN STANLEY IS LAYING OFF STOCK TRADERS. The investment bank plans to cut 5% of its stock-trading staff in early 2016, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The cuts, which The Journal says are based "solely on performance," will affect about 100 traders worldwide and are part of an annual exercise. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley said it would trim 2% of its workforce, including 470 front-office jobs in commodities and fixed income. STOCK MARKETS AROUND THE GLOBE ARE MOSTLY LOWER. Spain's IBEX (-1.5%) leads the way lower in Europe after Japan's Nikkei (-1.9%) lagged in Asia. S&P 500 futures are down 9.25 points at 2,015.50. THERE ARE SOME EARNINGS TO WATCH. BlackBerry, CarMax, Carnival, Darden Restaurants, and Lennar are set to release their quarterly results ahead of the opening bell. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Jim Cramer blasts the Fed’s Bullard and Lockhart for ‘not caring about the facts'
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GREECE and Europe: Looking back, looking ahead Dec 18.2015
It has been a year that no one in or outside GREECE will easily forget. With the change of government and Alexis Tsipras from the leftist Syriza party ...
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Assailants firebomb Turkish Consulate in northern GREECE
Around 25 hooded assailants launched 15 Molotov cocktails at the guard post of the Turkish Consulate in Thessaloniki in the early hours of Friday.
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“Echoes of Greece” Brings Greek Life to New York’s East Village
By Stephanie Nikolopoulos NEW YORK – Athens street scenes, Medieval Cretan towns, and Santorini churches exemplify the diversity of Greece in “Echoes of Greece,” a photography exhibit currently on view at New York City’s Umbrella Arts. Seen through the lens of ten photographers, the country and people depicted are at once familiar and timeless to […] The post “Echoes of Greece” Brings Greek Life to New York’s East Village appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greek Jobless Rate Now 24%
ATHENS – Greece’s unemployment rate fell a minimal 0.6 percent to 24 percent in the third quarter,, showing the lingering effects of a crushing economic crisis. The fall was offset by the fact that it was part-time work that helped cut it, not full-time positions as another government has failed to meet its own goals […] The post Greek Jobless Rate Now 24% appeared first on The National Herald.
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Tsipras forced to back down on anti-austerity plan
The Greek government has caved to the demands of its creditors and abandoned plans for a "parallel programme" of counter-austerity measures. Our partner La Tribune ...
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