10 things you need to know before European markets open
S&P just slashed Greece's credit rating even deeper into junk territory. "We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on Greece to 'CCC' from 'CCC+' to reflect our opinion that in the absence of an agreement between Greece and its official creditors, the Greek government will likely default on its commercial debt within the next 12 months," the credit-rating agency warned.
Chinese retail sales came in as forecast in May, while industrial production narrowly beat expectations. Industrial production rose 6.1% year on year, just 0.1% higher than analysts expected. Retail sales came in up 10.1%, exactly as expected.
The World Bank joined the IMF in pushing for a later US rate hike. According to Bloomberg, the bank's chief economist, Kaushik Basu, said on Wednesday that the economy is sending mixed signals. The World Bank also cut its forecast for US growth this year to 2.7% from 3.2% in its semiannual update on its forecasts for the global economy.
US hedge fund Elliott made a new legal challenge against a Samsung merger. Elliott said it had filed its second injunction with a South Korean court, this time to stop Samsung C&T Corp from selling treasury shares to KCC Corp in a bid to gain KCC's support for the proposed all-share takeover offer from Cheil Industries Inc.
Emirates says it would harm other European airlines if it brought in more European flights. CEO Tim Clark said: "If I was to put the (Airbus super-jumbo) A380 through multiple points in Europe, we would clean out the business like a Dyson hoover," referring to a vacuum cleaner. "I don't want to do that."
Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras finished a meeting with France's Francois Hollande and Germany's Angela Merkel last night. Afterwards Tsipras said that Greece and EU heavyweights Germany and France had agreed that last-ditch bailout talks must reach a "viable solution" as negotiations broke-up without a deal.
UK Chancellor George Osborne is going to sell the government's RBS share at a loss. During his Mansion House speech, Osborne said that the sale of RBS shares at a loss would be more than offset by profit on other bank shares sold by the government, according to the Financial Times.
New Zealand slashed interest rates. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut its overnight interest rate to 3.25% from 3.5%, and the New Zealand dollar immediately slipped by about 2% against the US dollar.
Then South Korea slashed interest rates. The Bank of Korea has followed suit, slashing its key policy rate by 0.25% to 1.5%, an all time low. The decision is the fourth rate cut delivered by the BoK in the past 12 months.
Asian markets are mixed. The Nikkei is up 1.48%, followed by Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which is up 0.95%. China's Shanghai Composite Index is down a little, 0.13% lower.