Good morning,
The teeth-gnashing continues in Greece. Parliament passed the austerity package the European creditors demanded in order for the country to get its bailout package. But Syriza is up in arms and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may not be able to hold the government together. Riot police (paywall) needed to keep order outside Parliament where leftists threw petrol bombs. The euro is getting slammed. This makes Janet Yellen’s problems look tame. The Federal Reserve Chair returns to Capitol Hill to appear before the Senate Banking Committee in Day Two of the semi-annual monetary policy testimony. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee lashed out at Yellen for dodging an investigation into a leak at the central bank and a general attitude problem toward the Congress.
The euro is now worth less than 70p for the first time in eight years pic.twitter.com/yE5EUTvrNJ
— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) July 16, 2015
Volatility, thy name is China. After a brutal start, Chinese shares successfully reversed course to lift the Shanghai Composite up 0.46% for the day. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index meanwhile rallied 0.43%, while Japan’s Nikkei Average gained nearly 0.7%. In currencies, the Euro continued to crumble against most of its peers today, hitting an eight-year low against the British pound and becoming just a whisker away from reaching parity with the dollar.
European finance ministers said to agree to $7.6 billion emergency loan to Greece. The announcement won’t come until Friday. Bloomberg
German finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble still wants a Grexit. In a radio interview, Grexit fan Wolfgang Schäuble cast further shade on Greece by saying “everybody knows that a debt cut is incompatible with membership of the currency union” and that a Grexit “would perhaps be the better way for Greece.” He did call the Greek government’s austerity approval “an important step” though, so it’s not like he was totally awful about it. Financial Times (paywall)
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Google, and Schlumberger to report second quarter earnings. Estimize is betting Goldman Sachs is going to do much better than the Wall Street consensus this quarter, earning $3.98/share vs expectations of $3.70/share. In the year earlier period, Goldman earned $4.10/share.
Uncle Carl called BlackRock an “extremely dangerous company.” Citing BlackRock’s multitude of “illiquid” ETFs, Carl Icahn called the giant asset manager an “extremely dangerous company.” Larry Fink did not appreciate the swipe, calling Icahn “dead wrong.” Reuters
Hedge fund manager Paul Singer brushes off anti-Semitic slurs in South Korea. Singer’s fund, Elliott Management, is embroiled in a battle over the fate of the Samsung empire. He claims a proposed deal by the founding family to merge two subsidiaries is unfair to other shareholders. Singer says he doesn’t believe the South Korean people are anti-Semitic and that he has worked in the country for 20 years. Quartz
Photo: EU Council Eurozone