Good morning everyone. While you were sleeping, Greece’s European creditors set up a skirmish between IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the former continuing to push for Greek debt relief while the latter refuses to budge on austerity. Meanwhile in the markets, U.S. and European shares fell once again with the S&P 500 down nearly 0.6% while the FTSE 100 slipped almost 0.2%. Over in Asia, Nikkei futures dropped at least 0.3%, while contracts on the Hang Seng and the FTSE China A50 dipped 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.
Here’s what else you need to know:
El Erian: China no longer drives the world’s economy. In an interview with CNBC, Allianz chief economist Mohamed El Erian said that while China was able to engineer a soft landing, it “is no longer a locomotive of global growth, and that has implications for companies and it has implications for commodities markets.” CNBC (video)
China’s stock market architect criticizes government rescue. Gao Xiqing, one of the architects of China’s stock market and one of its former top regulators, recently told the press that not only did the Chinese government help drive equity prices to unsustainable levels, but they also bungled the way they dealt with its collapse, telling the press that the government shouldn’t have let trading stop. Bloomberg
U.S. Treasury could be at risk. The U.S. Treasury’s Foreign Intelligence Network security is lax and could be vulnerable to hackers, a 2014 audit found. The network is used by the U.S. to track international threats and information that could impact the U.S. financial system, such as sanctions on Iran. Reuters
Japanese company snaps up the FT. Nikkei, the largest media company in Japan, is purchasing the Financial Times for £844 million, or $1.3 billion. Pearson has owned the FT Group for 58 years. German company Axel Springer was also in talks with Pearson about the paper, but Nikkei was able to throw down money fast for the win. Financial Times
Ferrari drives into IPO. Ferrari is spinning off into its own separate, publicly-owned company filing for IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. FiatChrysler Automobiles has owned 90% of Ferrari for more than 25 years. About 10% of Ferrari will be open to the public, and another 80% will go to FCA shareholders. Forbes
Photo: Jundy Tiu