Lack of news deadens markets with no movement on Greece issue

It was yet another sleepy Monday for the markets, as a slow news day left investors struggling to find a reason to buy.

Even the Eurozone, normally a hive of rumour and hearsay, was disappointingly quiet. Unusually, there was very little in the way of leaks around the Greek reform list, a rarity of late when nearly every minor move by the Eurogroup has been shot out, analysed and then reanalysed once more for good measure. Whilst the lack of these reports is probably a good thing for the progress of actually finding a solution, the markets have become used to these puffed up pieces of procrastination, and their absence has contributed to the flatness that has defined the start of this week.

With tomorrow seeing the actual discussion of the proposed reforms, it remains unclear whether we will see another quiet day like today. It depends on how quickly the Eurogroup make a decision about the list; if it goes the way of Wolfgang Schauble’s reaction to the original loan extension request, then the markets will have their answer very quickly; if it goes the way of everything other Eurogroup meeting, it may be another dull day of waiting. What may shake things up is the presence of final CPI figures for the region, alongside a statement from ECB President Draghi who is sure to have some (probably veiled) comments about the Greek situation.

The FTSE spent its day largely being crippled by the triple threat of falling oil stocks, a struggling mining sector and the HSBC dilemma, with the banking stock achieving whatever the opposite of catharsis is as investors fled from the currently poisonous company. With an empty calendar for Tuesday, the FTSE looks like it will have to endure another day of Eurozone waiting and oil-fretting tomorrow.

Despite the Dow Jones still hovering near a 1000 point month, a feat it has only achieved twice before, and the NASDAQ slowly closing in on an Apple-inspired 5000 level, the US markets couldn’t turn its proximity to these record figures into tangible success. Things were made worse by another missed target by the USA’s existing homes sales data, meaning the US markets’ one piece of data failed in igniting any fire underneath the indices. Tomorrow should be a different story, with Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen beginning her 2 day testimony, with the likely clarification this should supply surrounding any potential US interest rate hike being of great interest to the markets.