Archive - Feb 11, 2015

"It's like a tax-cut for the world's freight shippers..." oh wait...

Exactly as I warned 3 wks ago, Nordic countries are facing pressure. Here's strong evidence of a krone break, havoc to ensue in global banks, how to monetize when skittish brokers pull access & leverage. 

As noted earlier, the key macro event on today's calendar, and one which will likely be the origin of significant volatility, is the Eurogroup meeting to decide Greece's fate starting in a few hours where Yanis Varoufakis and his European Finance Minister peers will attempt to resolve two diametrically opposite and seemingly uncompromisable positions. Here is what to expect.

• Methodology change sees Indian economy grow faster than China's (Reuters)
• Can Greek Businesses Even Survive? (WSJ)
• Putin to travel to Minsk talks raising hopes of a deal over Ukraine (Euronews)
• Ukraine contact group representatives deny ceasefire deal in Minsk (Reuters)
• Moar buybacks! Hedge Fund-Backed Investor Puts Himself Up for G.M. Board (NYT)
• Ukraine peace summit overshadowed by some of war's worst fighting (Reuters)
• Time for non-non-GAAP excluding China: Tesla CEO threatens firings after dismal China sales - sources (Reuters)
• Jon Stewart leaving Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show' (Reuters)

The only question on traders' minds today, with the lack of any macro news out of the US (except for the DOE crude oil inventory update at 10:30am Eastern expecting a build of 3.5MM, down from 6.33MM last week, and the 10 Year bond auction at 1pm) is which Greek trip abroad is more important: that of FinMin Varoufakis to Belgium where he will enter the lion's den of Eurogroup finance ministers at 3:30pm GMT, or that of the foreign minister Kotzias who has already arrived in Moscow, and where we already got such blockbuster statements as:

LAVROV: RUSSIA WILL CONSIDER AID REQUESTS, IF GREECE MAKES THEM; KOTZIAS: GREECE IS WILLING TO MEDIATE BETWEEN EU, RUSSIA

Or perhaps both are critical, as what happens in Brussels will surely impact the outcome of the Greek trip to Russia?