Wall Street has joined other global markets by moving higher despite the lack of any agreement between Greece and its private bondholders.
Investors are clearly hoping a deal can be done, but it is still no clearer when that might come. With the IMF calling for the European bailout funds to be raised and Germany determined to keep a tight hold on the purse strings, there are still real disagreements over some of the other key issues that need to be resolved.
Even so, Wall Street is up around 40 points in early trading, with the FTSE 100 now 59.37 points higher at 5787.92. Germany's Dax and France's CAC have edged up nearly 1% while Italy is 2% higher. Italian and Spanish bond yields are falling again on hopes of a resolution to the crisis.
Meanwhile there was a slight improvement in European confidence in January, if you can believe such a thing in a month when global gloom has predominated and Standard & Poor's cut the credit ratings of nine eurozone countries. The EC consumer confidence index came in a -20.6 compared to -21.3 in December and a little better than the forecast -21.7. Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy said:
The outcome is in line with our forecast but a touch less gloomy than the median market forecast. That said, consumer confidence remains close to the relative low levels as households remain concerned about the future financial situation. The past two-week stabilization in financial markets, coupled with the first signs of easing inflationary pressures, might have helped to give a relative boost to confidence. However, it is far too early to anticipate a sustainable improvement in household confidence as uncertainties remain extremely high.
