Markets await Greek and US news on flat Wednesday morning

After an explosive start to the week, the markets opened Wednesday flat as they tentatively await news from the US and Greece.

Wednesday morning has seen Syriza continue to keep their election promises, sweeping in to halt the privatisation of Greek utility company PPC, preventing the sale of the country’s largest port and confirming their pledge to renegotiate Greek debt. Alexis Tspiras looks set to be a dangerous bedfellow for the austerity-obsessed Europe, and with foreign minister Kotzias reassuring the EU that Greece intends to play its full part in European politics this news might not be what the region wants to hear.

German paper Bild is still stoking the ‘Grexit’ fires, and perhaps has captured the current feeling in both Germany and the region as a whole, with Greece slowly looking more and more like an unwelcome guest at the Eurozone party. Whilst not the precipitous fall seen yesterday, the Eurozone indices have had a rather stagnant morning, as the shock of the Greek cabinet settles into mere disappointment.

After joining in with the afternoon haemorrhage that plagued the markets on Tuesday, the FTSE opened relatively flat as investors consolidated their positions in regards to Afren and the energy sector. The big falls of yesterday have begun to recover slightly, and the FTSE is still holding on to its 6800 mark. However, with little in the way of UK data for the rest of the week the FTSE may be at the mercy of its precarious energy and mining sectors as the day goes on.

An impressive rebound yesterday saw Brent Crude tip over the $49 per barrel mark; however the commodity suffered a wobble this morning, and is teetering on the edge of losing this level. With US crude inventories to arrive this afternoon, oil will be bracing itself after last month’s astonishing 10 million barrels figure.

The string of weak US earnings was abruptly halted by Apple last night as the company showed the world how an earnings release is done. Apple knocked analysts’ forecasts out of the park, and the US markets will be hoping for some trickledown positivity this afternoon. Yet the US open is likely to be flat as investors have one eye on the Federal Reserve statement this evening. Following the losses the country’s multinational giants have blamed on the strength of the dollar, an expectation has crept up for the Fed to address the impact the currency has had, and will have, on the all-important decision of whether to raise interest rates in this year or the next.