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10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Jonathan Garber   

10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Stock Market3 min read

A mannequin on a balcony

Reuters Marko Djurica

A mannequin is seen on balcony of an old building in Athens, Greece.

Before markets open on Thursday, here is what you need to know.

Greece is still without a deal. Negotiations between Greece and its creditors lasted throughout the night, but the parties were still unable to reach a deal. The troubled country's leaders are attempting to unfreeze 7.2 billion euros ($8.06 billion) in order to make debt payments to the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank on June 30 and July 20, respectively. According to analysts at BNP Paribas, "Failure to formalize a deal by the end of this week would very likely mean no further extension of emergency liquidity assistance, as well as capital controls and limits to bank deposit withdrawals." The lack of a deal does not necessarily mean a departure from the euro. Greece's 2-year yield is down 14 basis points at 21.45%.

Swiss National Bank chairman reiterates the Swiss franc is too strong. Thomas Jordan, the chairman of the Swiss National Bank, warned the franc remains "considerably overvalued." Jordan suggested the SNB could impose negative interest rates, if necessary, to weaken the currency. Speaking at a conference in Lausanne, Switzerland he said, "The global economy has been in a nearly permanent state of crisis for almost eight years," he continued, "The pressure on the franc is the mirror image of this." The Swiss franc is weaker by 0.6% at .9395 per dollar.

Central banks kept policy on hold. The Philippines' central bank held its benchmark interest rate at 4.00%, but lowered its inflation forecasts for 2015 and 2016. Elsewhere, Taiwan's central bank kept its key rate at 1.875%, and warned of an uncertain outlook for the global economy. Both decisions were as expected.

German consumer confidence slipped. GfK German Consumer Climate slipped to 10.1 in June from 10.2 in May. Despite the small drop, confidence remains near its best levels since before the financial crisis. The euro is down 0.1% at 1.1195.

TransUnion is IPOing. The credit protection provider priced its initial public offering at $22.50 per share, giving it a value of approximately $4 billion. According to the New York Times, Thursday's offering of 29.5 million shares will raise $626.5 million, which will be used to pay down debt. The stock will trade under the ticker 'TRU.'

Disney hiked its dividend. The company announced it is raising its dividend by 15% on an annualized basis and will now make the payments semi-annually. The increase means the first-half dividend will be $0.66 per share. Before the announcement, Disney was paying an annual dividend of $1.15.

Bed Bath & Beyond missed on the top and bottom lines. The retailer earned $0.93 per share, missing the Wall Street estimate of $0.95. Revenue edged up 3.1% to $2.738 billion, falling just shy of the $2.743 billion that was anticipated. The company issued earnings guidance of $1.18 to $1.23 per share for the current quarter.

Obama has won "fast track" authority for trade deals. The Senate voted 60-to-38 in favor of giving President Obama "fast track" authority for his Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade deals. Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group recently told Business Insider, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is "by far the most important piece of Obama's foreign policy legacy."

Stocks around the world are mixed. Germany's DAX (+0.6%) leads the advance in Europe after China's Shanghai Composite (-3.5%) was hit hard in overnight trade. S&P 500 futures are up 8.75 points at 2108.25.

US economic data flows. Initial and continuing claims, personal income and spending and Core PCE Prices are all due out at 8:30 a.m. ET before natural gas inventories cross the wires at 10:30 a.m. ET. Treasury will auction $29 billion 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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