(As of 7:10 am PST)
US stocks inched higher to
start Friday’s session as investors continued to monitor negotiations between
Greece and its creditors. Negotiations around reform plans have disintegrated
in recent days after optimistic progress earlier in the week. A group of
Euro-zone finance leaders will meet again Saturday in an eleventh hour meeting
to hopefully land on a deal before Greece has to repay 1.54 billion euros to
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday next week. Economic data is
light today but a final reading on consumer sentiment is helping to buoy stocks
as sentiment rose more than expected in June. Also, helping to stabilize stocks
this morning was a better than expected earnings report from Nike which sent
shares rallying 4.5%. The newly-added Dow component is leading the index higher
in contrast to what otherwise is a complacent market today. In Asia, stocks
finished Friday’s session lower, while the Shanghai index slid more than 7% on
lingering concerns that Chinese stocks are overvalued. European markets are
quiet heading into a very important weekend for Greece and the Euro-zone. Gold
and oil are down today while interest rates and the US dollar are higher.
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