Many euro leaders want Greece to leave (Surprised?)
Greece says it's ready. Really
Greece's finance minister promises to meet all the conditions needed for fresh bailout funds by the time his colleagues in the euro zone hold a key telephone conference today. Honest.
Finance ministers of the 17-member monetary union originally planned to meet face-to-face, but decided it wasn't worth the trip and they'd just chat by phone because Athens wasn't ready as of yesterday.
"There is no euro group meeting but there will be a conference call, although it appears the meat will not be put on the bailout bones until Monday’s full meeting," said fixed income and currency strategist Michael Turner of RBC.
But Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said today that "very few" issues are left to iron out to meet the terms dictated by the so-called Troika - the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and theEuropean Central Bank - and other countries in the euro zone for the €130-billion.
In Greece, of course "very few" can translate into a very long time.
Among the demands of other euro leaders are letters of commitment from Greek's politicians that they will adhere to their austerity plans no matter what happens in elections scheduled for April.
A spokesman for the EU said today that "we are running out of time," while Germany's outspoken finance minister said his government wants to help Athens but won't throw money into a "bottomless pit."
On the home front, Mr. Venizelos warned his own people that several other countries no longer want Greece in the euro zone, which shouldn't surprise anyone given that the debt crisis has run for two years now.
"At play for our generation is either sacrifices and cutbacks, or national catastrophe that can carry away our society, our institutions and democracy," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Greece is staring a default in the face, with a big bond redemption looming in late March.
"Yesterday’s late cancellation of today’s EU finance ministers meeting appears symptomatic of the brinkmanship being played out between EU officials and Greek politicians as they play cat and mouse with each other, and the markets over the ratification of the latest Greek bailout," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
Euro economy shrinks
Amid the continuing troubles with the bailout talks, official numbers today show how badly some European nations are suffering.
The euro zone economy, as a whole, contracted by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, and many believe the region is back in recession, the second in about three years.
Gross domestic product in the wider 27-member EU declined at the same pace, the statistics agency Eurostat said today.
There was at least one surprise, though. While Germany's economy dipped by 0.2 per cent, as expected, France actually eked out a gain of 0.2 per cent.
Markets climb
Despite all this, global market are on the rise today, buoyed in part by another promise by China to do what it can to help the euro zone.
Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 2.3 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent by about 7:45 a.m. ET.
Dow Jones industrial average (YM-FT12,880.0040.000.31%) and S&P 500 (ES-FT1,352.504.750.35%) futures also moved up.
Make sense? Not to everyone.
"Last night’s price action and the markets’ apparent complacency surrounding the implications of a potential of a Greek default, surprised us," said Lauren Rosborough of Société Générale.
"For us, one prime concern (if there is a Greek default) is the contagion risk to peripheral Europe. Consider this. Deposits have been falling in Greece to the tune of 16 per cent per year but deposits have not been falling anywhere to the same extent elsewhere. Householders in peripheral Europe tend to keep their savings with local banks and of these savings, overnight deposits are most at risk (either to be moved into a core European bank or converted into cash)."
Oil jumps on Iran
Oil prices are climbing today in the wake of Iranian reports that the country is cutting its exports to several European nations planning to bring in sanctions in July.
"In response to the latest sanctions imposed by the EU against Iran's energy and banking sectors, the Islamic Republic has cut oil exports to six European countries," said Press TV, a state-run group.
The countries involved are France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.
This follows a decision by European governments in January to stop buying oil from Iran beginning July 1.
Cenovus boosts dividend
Canada's Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE-T38.600.882.33%) closed out what it said was a strong 2011 with a 10-per-cent hike in its dividend and a surge in fourth-quarter profit.
Cenovus earned $266-million or 35 cents a share, diluted, in the quarter, compared to $78-million or 10 cents a year earlier.
Conventional oil and natural gas liquids production, before royalties, rose to almost 69,700 barrels a day. Production from Canada's oil sands climbed to more than 74,500 million.
Its reserves climbed 17 per cent to 1.9 billions of oil equivalent.
"The company continues to advance its oil projects by drilling stratigraphic test wells, moving applications through the regulatory process and constructing expansions as it works toward the goal of 500,000 barrels a day of net oil production by the end of 2021," Cenovus said.
It boosted its quarterly dividend to 22 cents, and said it expects its "continued financial strength will allow our board of directors to place a priority on continuing to grow the dividend."
MICHAEL BABAD
Greece says it's ready. Really
Greece's finance minister promises to meet all the conditions needed for fresh bailout funds by the time his colleagues in the euro zone hold a key telephone conference today. Honest.
Finance ministers of the 17-member monetary union originally planned to meet face-to-face, but decided it wasn't worth the trip and they'd just chat by phone because Athens wasn't ready as of yesterday.
"There is no euro group meeting but there will be a conference call, although it appears the meat will not be put on the bailout bones until Monday’s full meeting," said fixed income and currency strategist Michael Turner of RBC.
But Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said today that "very few" issues are left to iron out to meet the terms dictated by the so-called Troika - the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and theEuropean Central Bank - and other countries in the euro zone for the €130-billion.
In Greece, of course "very few" can translate into a very long time.
Among the demands of other euro leaders are letters of commitment from Greek's politicians that they will adhere to their austerity plans no matter what happens in elections scheduled for April.
A spokesman for the EU said today that "we are running out of time," while Germany's outspoken finance minister said his government wants to help Athens but won't throw money into a "bottomless pit."
On the home front, Mr. Venizelos warned his own people that several other countries no longer want Greece in the euro zone, which shouldn't surprise anyone given that the debt crisis has run for two years now.
"At play for our generation is either sacrifices and cutbacks, or national catastrophe that can carry away our society, our institutions and democracy," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Greece is staring a default in the face, with a big bond redemption looming in late March.
"Yesterday’s late cancellation of today’s EU finance ministers meeting appears symptomatic of the brinkmanship being played out between EU officials and Greek politicians as they play cat and mouse with each other, and the markets over the ratification of the latest Greek bailout," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
Euro economy shrinks
Amid the continuing troubles with the bailout talks, official numbers today show how badly some European nations are suffering.
The euro zone economy, as a whole, contracted by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, and many believe the region is back in recession, the second in about three years.
Gross domestic product in the wider 27-member EU declined at the same pace, the statistics agency Eurostat said today.
There was at least one surprise, though. While Germany's economy dipped by 0.2 per cent, as expected, France actually eked out a gain of 0.2 per cent.
Despite all this, global market are on the rise today, buoyed in part by another promise by China to do what it can to help the euro zone.
Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 2.3 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 2.1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent by about 7:45 a.m. ET.
Dow Jones industrial average (YM-FT12,880.0040.000.31%) and S&P 500 (ES-FT1,352.504.750.35%) futures also moved up.
Make sense? Not to everyone.
"Last night’s price action and the markets’ apparent complacency surrounding the implications of a potential of a Greek default, surprised us," said Lauren Rosborough of Société Générale.
"For us, one prime concern (if there is a Greek default) is the contagion risk to peripheral Europe. Consider this. Deposits have been falling in Greece to the tune of 16 per cent per year but deposits have not been falling anywhere to the same extent elsewhere. Householders in peripheral Europe tend to keep their savings with local banks and of these savings, overnight deposits are most at risk (either to be moved into a core European bank or converted into cash)."
Oil jumps on Iran
Oil prices are climbing today in the wake of Iranian reports that the country is cutting its exports to several European nations planning to bring in sanctions in July.
"In response to the latest sanctions imposed by the EU against Iran's energy and banking sectors, the Islamic Republic has cut oil exports to six European countries," said Press TV, a state-run group.
The countries involved are France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.
This follows a decision by European governments in January to stop buying oil from Iran beginning July 1.
Cenovus boosts dividend
Canada's Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE-T38.600.882.33%) closed out what it said was a strong 2011 with a 10-per-cent hike in its dividend and a surge in fourth-quarter profit.
Cenovus earned $266-million or 35 cents a share, diluted, in the quarter, compared to $78-million or 10 cents a year earlier.
Conventional oil and natural gas liquids production, before royalties, rose to almost 69,700 barrels a day. Production from Canada's oil sands climbed to more than 74,500 million.
Its reserves climbed 17 per cent to 1.9 billions of oil equivalent.
"The company continues to advance its oil projects by drilling stratigraphic test wells, moving applications through the regulatory process and constructing expansions as it works toward the goal of 500,000 barrels a day of net oil production by the end of 2021," Cenovus said.
It boosted its quarterly dividend to 22 cents, and said it expects its "continued financial strength will allow our board of directors to place a priority on continuing to grow the dividend."
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