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Monday August 3, 2015

// August 3rd, 2015 // Comments Off on Monday August 3, 2015 // Daily News

Greek stock market trades 17% lower after reopening

CNBC.com

The Athens stock exchange was trading around 17 percent lower around midday on Monday, after falling nearly 23 percent after it reopened for the first time in five weeks.
Greek banking stocks were the worst hit with Alpha Bank, Attica Bank and Eurobank Ergasius, Bank of Piraeus and the National Bank of Greece were all trading at or around 30 percent lower – the daily volatility limit. Similar losses were seen in other stocks outside of the banking industry too.
There was further bad news for the Greek economy earlier, with flash manufacturing PMI figures for July down to 30.2 the lowest reading since Markit began compiling data in 1999.
To make matters worse, an economic sentiment index for Greece hit its lowest level since October 2012 in July with capital controls and political uncertainty weighing on sentiment, according to the IOBE think tank that conducted the survey.
Ahead of the much-anticipated open, traders were bracing themselves for a day of “losses and volatility.”
Greek traders told Reuters on Sunday that they expected a torrid day of losses when the stock market opened. Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities, told the news agency that “the possibility of seeing even a single share rise in tomorrow’s session is almost zero.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission told CNBC ahead of the open that his commission would monitor the market closely on Monday.
“We are not participants in the market, we are the supervisors and we are waiting to see what happens,” Kostas Botopoulos told CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box” Monday. “It’s very important that we’re opening, of course we expect pressure on the Greek stock market but we’ll be there to monitor what happens.”
He said there would be no state intervention into the market, saying: “We’re looking to see when it will stabilize, at which prices, and what the perception of the Greek market is from domestic and foreign investors.”
Focus for the day is likely to be on the losses among Greek banking stocks, which constitute around 20 percent of the main Athens index. Restrictions have been put in place to stem capital flight, however.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at currency trading platform OANDA, said the banks would be key for investors.
“The Greek stock market is likely to suffer significant losses today, led by the banks which have been hit considerably by the events of this year and now need to be recapitalized at the very least,” he said in a note Monday.

The rules

Local investors will face restrictions that reflect the continuing capital controls on Greek banks that limit withdrawals to 60 euros a day. This means that domestic investors can only buy shares with fresh money from abroad or cash they have to hand, Reuters reported last week. They can also buy shares with money coming from security sales or dividends or cash remaining with their security firms.
Foreign investors may trade freely, however.
The reopen comes after a prolonged period of financial uncertainty in Greece. The stock market shut when capital controls were imposed on Greek banks at the end of June, when it looked increasingly likely that Greece was about to go bankrupt and leave the euro zone.
An eleventh-hour deal between the Greek government and lenders over a third bailout program for Greece worth 86 billion euros was agreed, however, pulling the country back from the brink of an unprecedented “Grexit” from the single currency union. Greek banks then reopened on July 20.
Although the finer details of a bailout are still being hammered out between lenders, the country is deemed to have stabilized enough for the stock market to reopen. Market analysts warned that Monday was likely to be a day of losses, however.
“While it would be easy to suggest that today’s reopening of the Greek stock market is a key step on the road to some form of normalization, it is likely to be anything but,” according to Michael Hewson, chief markets analysts at CMC Markets, who warned of “volatility and losses.”

Today’s Inspiration

Practice Makes Perfect

by Joyce Meyer – posted August 03, 2015

Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on and talk of Your wondrous works.
– Psalm 119:27

Mark 4:24 says the amount of time you give to the Word will determine the amount of knowledge and virtue that comes back to you. As humans, we can be rather lazy, and many people want to get something for nothing (with no effort on their part); however, according to this Scripture, that is not the way it works.

If you want to do what the Word of God says and tap into the full power available to you, you will have to spend time reading the Word, meditating on it, pondering and contemplating it, talking about it, and rehearsing and practicing it in your thinking.

Remember the old saying “Practice makes perfect”? We don’t expect to be experts at other things in life without a lot of study, so why would we expect living the Christian life to be any different?

Power Thought: I study the Word of God so I can learn God’s ways.

Wednesday July 29, 2015

// July 29th, 2015 // Comments Off on Wednesday July 29, 2015 // Daily News

Windows 10 Review: Microsoft Takes a Step Back to Move Forward

Starting today, Microsoft will try to reinvigorate its flagging Windows franchise, reignite falling PC sales, and maybe even save its almost invisible phone business with the release of just one product — Windows 10.
At its heart, Windows 10, which will begin rolling out gradually as a free update, is a rescue mission. It’s an attempt to almost fully backpedal from its 2012 predecessor, Windows 8 (they are skipping 9), which was a radical effort to redefine the way Windows looked and worked. That experiment failed to win the hearts and wallets of consumers, and is estimated to have only about a 16 percent share of global PC users.
Instead, Windows 10 more closely resembles an even older version, the 2009-era Windows 7, with a dash of the Windows 8 look and feel retained. Unlike Windows 8 at its launch, the latest version of Windows will boot into the familiar desktop metaphor, and boast a full, working Start menu.
There are few wholly new big features, and some of them are catchups with those on Apple’s Macintosh OS X.
Also, the near-final build I’ve been testing proved surprisingly buggy. In particular, I had trouble with Windows 10’s sexiest new feature, the voice-controlled Cortana intelligent assistant — Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri — which has migrated from Windows Phones to the PC.
Still, some of the new features are promising, the balance between old and new styles seems right this time, and — if the bugs get erased — Windows 10 would be a good choice for Windows devotees.

Today’s Inspiration

Taking a Peace Inventory

by Joyce Meyer – posted July 29, 2015

And He came and preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off and [peace] to those who were near.
– Ephesians 2:17

Do you enjoy a peaceful atmosphere most of the time? Are you thankful and able to keep your peace during the storms of life? Are you at peace with God? Are you at peace with yourself? These are important questions. It is good to take a “peace inventory,” checking various areas of our lives to see if we need to make adjustments anywhere.

Jesus said He gave us His peace (see John 14:27). If He gives us His peace, we can gratefully walk in it and enjoy it. The minute we sense that we are losing our peace, we need to make a decision to calm down. I have found that the sooner I calm down, the easier it is to do so. If I allow myself to become extremely upset, it not only takes a toll on me emotionally, mentally, and physically, but it is more difficult to return to peace.

Jesus has provided peace for our lives, but we must appropriate it, not letting our hearts get troubled or afraid. We cannot just passively wait to feel peaceful. We are to pursue peace and refuse to live without it.

Prayer of Thanks
Father, thank You for the gift of peace that You have given me. As I do an inventory of my life, I choose to receive Your peace and live in it each day. I am so grateful that with Your help I can be at rest and enjoy Your peace.