Greek PM faces his skeptical creditors

The chase by Greg Bonnell:

After walking out on bailout talks last month, Greece’s prime minister is in Brussels today seeking a new deal from the beleaguered nation’s creditors. What’s different this time? Alexis Tsipras carries with him a 61% ‘No’ result from the weekend’s referendum. Mr. Tsipras may feel he enters this fresh round of talks with a mandate, but do Greece’s creditors care?

There are closed-door meetings and plenty of posturing on all sides. European finance ministers are putting their heads together ahead of meeting of the continent’s leaders today.

It’s unlikely a deal can be brokered quickly, but there is urgency when it comes to Greece’s banks. They’re still closed, and in danger of running out of money.

BNN has full coverage and analysis throughout the day, both on the channel and the website, of this rapidly evolving story.

Amid all this uncertainty, European markets are firmly in the red. North American futures, however, are showing some green on my screen.

On the home front, Canada’s trade deficit came in much deeper than expected - $3.34 billion versus the estimated $2.55 billion shortfall for May. Where’s that rebound in non-energy exports we’ve been counting on?

It’s another key piece of economic data to weigh as more and more economists concede Canada likely fell into a ‘technical’ recession for the first half of this year, that is: two quarters of negative growth.

This shines the spotlight on Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz as bets mount he’ll cut the bank’s key overnight rate next week to 0.5% from the current 0.75%, effectively taking out more insurance against the fallout from the crash in crude.

But also caught in the spotlight’s glare: the federal government. Questions are being raised about whether monetary policy (the Bank of Canada’s sandbox) is enough to give the Canadian economy the solid kick it needs – mostly recently this morning on BNN from Nomura’s Charles St-Arnaud.

With rates already at historic lows, the thinking is it will take fiscal policy, namely stimulus spending from the Harper government, to move things along.

What are the prospects of that? We’re in an election year, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his finance minister, Joe Oliver, are beating the balanced budget drum – loudly. Read: No stimulus.

But the perceived need for economic stimulus from the Feds is fast becoming a hot election issue. Minister Oliver speaks in Vancouver today and will take media questions during the noon hour, Eastern Time. BNN will have full coverage.

What else? China’s attempts to stop the dramatic slide in equities worked, for one day. And now the selling resumes. It appears traders are exiting positions backed by borrowed money at a pace not seen in some five years, despite the central bank’s move to support buying on margin.