Greece votes yes amid political uncertainty... Yellen rejects calls for more oversight from Congress... Qualcomm facing EU anti-trust probe... Uber reports surge in business customers...
Greece votes yes amid political uncertainty
The Greek parliament voted to accept the Eurozone bailout proposals Wednesday night but the country faces some tough times ahead. Not just the hefty burdens of the austerity measures that it must implement in order to qualify for the cash but civil and political unrest. There were violent demonstrations on the streets of Athens as MPs debated the bailout and inside parliament there was talk of a weakened prime minister and the potential for elections in the coming months. Major markets in Asia closed higher despite concern over China’s volatile markets and European indexes are also trading higher following the Greek decision.
US stock futures are trending higher. Oil is trending higher (Brent $57.84, WTI $51.92 at 6.20am ET) Gold is trending lower.
Today’s data
Jobless claims at 8.30am ET
Bloomberg consumer comfort index at 9.45am ET
Philadelphia Fed business outlook at 10am ET
Housing Market Index at 10am ET
Janet Yellen speaks at 10am ET
Fed Balance Sheet at 4pm ET
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Mattel are among the companies reporting earnings today.
Yellen rejects calls for more oversight from Congress
Fed chair Janet Yellen rejected calls for more oversight of the central bank Wednesday as lawmakers said the Fed was not accountable enough. NBC reports that Yellen said that there is a flow of information from the Fed which makes its actions accountable and transparent and hit back at calls for it to have a more predictable monetary policy: "I think we need a systematic policy. But I would strongly resist agreeing to follow any rule where the stance of monetary policy depends on only the current readings of two economic variables, which is what your reference rule relies on.”
Qualcomm facing EU anti-trust probe
Chipmaker Qualcomm is under investigation from competition regulators in the European Union. The probe focuses on whether the US firm offered financial incentives to customers in the EU if they bought equipment only from the company. The New York Times reports that a second element of the investigation is whether the firm cut its prices to below its manufacturing costs to force competitors out.
Uber reports surge in business customers
Business travelers are increasingly turning to Uber and away from taxis and rental cars. Travel and expense firm Certify looked at $8 million of US transactions from April to June and discovered that 55 per cent involved Uber, up from 18 per cent in 2014. CNN reports that cabs accounted for 43 per cent while Uber’s rival Lyft accounted for just 1 per cent.
The Greek parliament voted to accept the Eurozone bailout proposals Wednesday night but the country faces some tough times ahead. Not just the hefty burdens of the austerity measures that it must implement in order to qualify for the cash but civil and political unrest. There were violent demonstrations on the streets of Athens as MPs debated the bailout and inside parliament there was talk of a weakened prime minister and the potential for elections in the coming months. Major markets in Asia closed higher despite concern over China’s volatile markets and European indexes are also trading higher following the Greek decision.
US stock futures are trending higher. Oil is trending higher (Brent $57.84, WTI $51.92 at 6.20am ET) Gold is trending lower.
Today’s data
Jobless claims at 8.30am ET
Bloomberg consumer comfort index at 9.45am ET
Philadelphia Fed business outlook at 10am ET
Housing Market Index at 10am ET
Janet Yellen speaks at 10am ET
Fed Balance Sheet at 4pm ET
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Mattel are among the companies reporting earnings today.
Yellen rejects calls for more oversight from Congress
Fed chair Janet Yellen rejected calls for more oversight of the central bank Wednesday as lawmakers said the Fed was not accountable enough. NBC reports that Yellen said that there is a flow of information from the Fed which makes its actions accountable and transparent and hit back at calls for it to have a more predictable monetary policy: "I think we need a systematic policy. But I would strongly resist agreeing to follow any rule where the stance of monetary policy depends on only the current readings of two economic variables, which is what your reference rule relies on.”
Qualcomm facing EU anti-trust probe
Chipmaker Qualcomm is under investigation from competition regulators in the European Union. The probe focuses on whether the US firm offered financial incentives to customers in the EU if they bought equipment only from the company. The New York Times reports that a second element of the investigation is whether the firm cut its prices to below its manufacturing costs to force competitors out.
Uber reports surge in business customers
Business travelers are increasingly turning to Uber and away from taxis and rental cars. Travel and expense firm Certify looked at $8 million of US transactions from April to June and discovered that 55 per cent involved Uber, up from 18 per cent in 2014. CNN reports that cabs accounted for 43 per cent while Uber’s rival Lyft accounted for just 1 per cent.
