Here's my summary of the key overnight news in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news finance ministers from the world's 20 largest economies have rejected calls from Germany to expand the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) rescue funds by US$500 billion.
Instead, the G20 called on Germany to help beef up Europe's own rescue funds, which Germany is reluctant to do.
Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed the latest Greek bailout through the German parliament overnight, but only after saying she didn't want to contribute more to Europe's rescue plan.
Merkel pointed to a fall in Spanish and Italian bond yields this year after the European Central Bank lent €489 billion to banks for three year terms at 1% before Christmas in its first Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO). Many of those banks then re-lent that money to European governments at slightly higher interest rates to make a 'carry trade' profit.
See more at Bloomberg on the German parliamentary vote, where a growing number of rebels in her own coalition voted against the Greek bailout. Bloomberg reported a survey by German's Bild newspaper found more than 80% of German voters were opposed to the bailout.
Also there are signs the European Central Bank has stopped buying European government bonds on-market ahead of its second LTRO scheduled for Wednesday night New Zealand time where another €500 billion is expected to be doled out. Bloomberg reported the ECB hadn't bought any bonds for two weeks.
European stocks fell 0.3% on the news the G20 opposed bigger bailout funds. See more here at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, US stocks (S&P 500) closed up around 0.1% after better than expected figures were published showing pending home sales rose 1.6% to a two year high in January. See more here at Reuters.
However, the Dow failed again to close above 13,000, ending down 1.4 points at 12,981.5. See more at BusinessInsider.
US stocks were also helped by a 1% fall in Brent crude to around US$124/bbl. The oil price had risen 5% in the previous week on fears any conflict in Iran might reduce oil supplies from the Middle East.
The New Zealand dollar, which often rises and falls with appetites for risk on global stock markets, rose to over 84 USc in morning trade.
Elsewhere, Japan's last major computer chip maker filed for bankruptcy overnight after it failed to anticipate the shift in chipmaking to mobile chips from PC chips. See more here at Bloomberg.
(Updated with Wall St close)
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