Good afternoon everyone. The Shanghai and Shenzhen composites continued to trade a little weak today, ending the morning session down 1% and 0.42% respectively. Just like yesterday, Hong Kong did a little better, closing up 0.4%. Japanese equities meanwhile are trading flat ahead of earnings.
Here’s what else you need to know:
No bailout for you, Greece. Continuing their hard stance on reforming Greece’s debt, the IMF has disqualified Greece from receiving a third bailout, citing the nation’s “high debt levels and poor record of implementing reforms.” They will re-enter talks however once Greece has “agreed on a comprehensive set of reforms” while EU leaders “agreed on debt relief.” Financial Times (paywall)
Kiwi nose-dives after New Zealand business confidence slumps. The ANZ New Zealand business confidence indicator fell way, way deep into the negative this July, coming in at a six-year low of -15.3% compared to a -2.3% reading the month before. The already-bloodied kiwi promptly fell below 0.660 against the dollar, despite trading as high as 0.6612 earlier in the day. Radio New Zealand / FXStreet
Japanese CPI barely budges. The Bank of Japan’s 2% inflation target looks light-years away right now as headline CPI came in at 0.4% year-on-year for June compared to 0.5% for the month before. June Core CPI meanwhile came in at 0.1% – same as May. The yen however seems to have shrugged the whole thing off. Financial Times (paywall)
Photo: Wolfgang Staudt