4 Aug 2015

Greek Stocks Fall 16% in One Day; Markets Still Efficient

Thankfully, Greece has been out of the headlines for a few weeks as the Mediterranean country continues to negotiate their third bailout in five years. In the meantime, some of the capital controls are beginning to lift: banks reopened on July 20 (although withdrawals are still severely limited) and yesterday, the Greek stock market opened again, albeit -16 percent lower. Obviously, that’s an enormous decline – the S&P 500 has… Read More

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7 Jul 2015

How Investors See the Greek Problem in Two Charts

While I’m dying to take a break from the ongoing financial crisis in Greece, I also want to show how the calamity isn’t destabilizing markets so far. Importantly, US stocks barely budged yesterday in response to the news, although stocks overseas didn’t fare as well.  The FTSE Developed Markets ex North America index fell by -1.61 percent while the FTSE Emerging Markets Index dropped -1.98 percent. While prices tell us… Read More

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6 Jul 2015

Greece to Creditors: Heck NO

In what could easily be described as one of the highest stakes showdowns in the world today, the Greek people resoundingly voted ‘no’ to accepting conditions set by their creditors for a third bailout.   More than 60 percent of Greek voters rejected terms for additional aid set forth by what is colloquially known as the ‘Troika,’ a triumvirate made up of the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary… Read More

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30 Jun 2015

Markets Respond Reasonably Well to Greek News

As I wrote yesterday’s edition of Daily Insights on Sunday night, it was ‘obvious’ that stocks would respond poorly to the news and that bonds would fare reasonably well. In a sense, I’m not surprised at the market reaction yesterday.  That said, I would also not have been surprised if markets had been much worse than they were.  After the fact, I can say that the response is what I… Read More

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29 Jun 2015

The Situation in Greece Intensifies

After nearly five years of kicking the can down the road, it appears as if the situation in Greece may be at an inflection point. Yesterday, the European Central Bank (ECB) said that they would not provide any additional emergency funding to the nation’s banking system.  Without the new funding, most people in and out of Greece believe that there will be a run on the banks. People in Greece… Read More

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