Asian markets open broadly lower, following global markets, as worries on Greece persists. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "we don't yet have the necessary progress" regarding the debt negotiation. Instead, she noted that "one even has the impression that we've regressed a bit". Nonetheless, French President Francois Hollande said that an agreement was "possibly and is necessary". Markets are still awaiting the results of the two day summit of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels. And there are talks that if a deal couldn't be reached by Greece and international creditors by Saturday, EU officials would start turning their attention to managing the scenario of a default. Meanwhile, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said that it still expected Greece to repay EUR 1.6b on the deadline next Tuesday.
Talking about IMF, it said in a staff paper that Fed's dot plot of interest rate projections, which is released every three months, is confusing. It noted that "it is not straightforward to connect the dots to get a coherent vision of the path ahead." And, the dots "do not provide a clear picture of the Federal Open Market Committee's majority view." And it urged that "the main next step for modifying the existing framework at the Fed."
On the data front, New Zealand trade surplus widened to NZD 350m in May versus expectation of NZD -50m deficit. From Japan, national CPI core dropped to 0.1% yoy in May but was higher than expectation of 0.0% yoy. Tokyo CPI core dropped to 0.1% yoy in June, inline with consensus. Household spending rose 4.8% yoy in May while unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.3%. Eurozone M3 and US U of Michigan sentiment final will be released later today.