A critical day for Greece
The chase by Michael Kane:

Euro zone finance ministers are huddling in Brussels this hour. They need to reach acompromise on a loan extension to avoid default, with the clock ticking on a bailout program by the end of the month. Athens has already conceded on keyissues like debt haircuts and involvement by the troika of lenders, so they’re confident that Germany will be able to compromise too. What Germany and theEU doesn’t like in the Greek plan is muddy language around fiscal targets and what terms of the old bailout actually expire. In response, the euro isweakening, U.S. equity-index futures are falling and Treasuries are rising with German bunds.

Late yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new tax breaks for the LNG industry in a bid to get themegaproject proposals in BC moving again. Spending on the projects will be allowed quicker deductions, some tax payments may be deferred. The new capitalcost allowance rate would be 30 percent for equipment used in gas liquefaction, up from 8 percent, and 10 percent for buildings,from 6 percent previously.Raymond James sees it as a positive sign and is upgrading 2 LNG stocks. Andy Bell and Jameson Berkow are covering this story and Commodites is looking forrelated companies and players in the industry to comment.

Trading in the Canadian dollar is proving to be quite volatile today. The loonie took a significant dip on news that retail sales in Canada fell 2% inDecember. That was not expected, in the midst of the holiday shopping season. The dollar fell more than a half-cent yesterday but rebounded overnight andwas up a third of a cent before the retail sales numbers came up – then fell almost a half-cent to 79.90 cents U.S.

The retail sales report suggests consumer confidence may be deteriorating with the plunge in crude oil prices through the second half of 2014. Sales fell2.5 percent in Alberta, the third straight monthly decline for the province according to Statistics Canada.

BLACKBERRY JAM

BlackBerry users whose smartphones wouldn't let them book a date on Tinder or play Candy Crush will finally have a chance to join the crowd through a newsoftware update. The company has released the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system. But read the BNN story and you’ll seethat most Canadian users will have to wait for the so-called “incredible new enhancements.”

CORPORATE NEWS

Enerplus is the latest energy company to cut its capex & dividend. The news comes as the President of Canadian Natural Resourcesis warning the oil sands industry to cut costsas he blames services companies for inflation. Meanwhile, Bonterra Energy is buying assets for $172 million showing smaller players still can spend on newopportunities.

Shares of heavy equipment maker John Deere & Co are likely to come under selling pressure today. The latest quarterly earnings report was a reallystrong one but Deere issued a warning for the rest of the year. The trickle-down effect seems to work this way: farmers overplanted last year creatingrecord harvests so the oversupply of grain has driven down prices, prompting farmers to pull back on spending plans for tractors, ploughs and combines.

We’re also waiting on market reaction to Bombardier’s plan to bolster its balance sheet by selling at least $750M in new equity. Trading in sharesof Bombardier was halted before the closing bell yesterday.

FINALLY …

Apple is working on building an electric car.Reports say Apple has been hiring engineers and they now have 200 people working on the project. Bloomberg News says the Apple car could be on the roads bythe year 2020.

YouTube is planning a channel dedicated to children. There is no shortage of things to watch on YouTube of course, but the parent company of Google figuresthere's a lot more money to be made with channels that are targeted to specific groups.

Have a great weekend.