Wall St ends flat amid EU newsflow; housing data positive

Excerpts from Power Breakfast on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

**European Union prepares for Greece exit; Bundesbank says Greece exit ’manageable’. 

At the informal summit yesterday leaders say they want Greece to continue being a part of Euro

But Euro Working Group asked to start contingency planning assuming a possible exit

There was no major decision at the summit as expected; French President Francois Hollande pushed for Eurobonds while German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed.

There were rumors that EU is considering proposal to guarantee all bank deposits aid.

US was largely stable amidst EU newsflow; data was supportive yesterday.  

US new home sales for April went up 3.3% MoM to 3,43,000 as against 3,32,000 in March - better than expected

Housing Price Index was up 1.8% MoM versus +0.3% in the last reading - also better than consensus  

Dell crashed over 17% on disappointing revenue guidance.

US markets at close: Dow Jones was flat at 12,496; S&P 500 Index rose 0.17% to 1318.8 and Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%

EU markets at close: DAX, FTSE and CAC tanked around 2.5%; Italy went down 3.7% and Spain lost 3.3%.  

Asia today

Shanghai went up 0.2% ahead of China Flash PMI for May.

Taiwan Weighted, Straits Times and Kospi moved up 0.2% each while Hang Seng went down 0.2%

SGX Nifty rose 0.6% to 4,835

Currencies

Euro broke down on Greece jitters and fell to its lowest in nearly 2 years

Euro hit low of 1.2545 to the dollar yesterday

Dollar Index was at its highest level since September 2010; it hit a high of 82.17 on Wednesday.

PBoC pegged yuan at 6.324/USD.

Commodities

It was a volatile session for commodities yesterday

Sharp intraday cuts were seen yesterday but most of them recovered today

Gold fell nearly 2% to hit a low of USD 1533/ounce yesterday, but it has regained all lost ground today to trade at USD 1560/ounce

Crude too recovered; Brent crude was up 1% today at USD 106.6/barrel and WTI crude at USD 90.7/barrel

Copper went up 1.3% today morning

Data to watch out for

Eurozone, Germany, France flash PMIs

Germany Q1 GDP

Germany IFO Biz climate data

US Jobless Claims