90 seconds at 9 am: Greek politics riling global markets; Fresh elections more likely after leftist coalition talks fail; Spanish banks stressed; NZ$ weak

Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news that Greek political turmoil and Spain's debt crisis continued to rile global financial markets.

The leader of Greece's Leftish Syriza party abandoned hopes for a coalition government that would default on Greece's debts and tear up its austerity agreement with its donors.

Fresh elections now look inevitable, along with the growing prospect of an uncontrolled default and possible exit from the Euro, along with all the financial turmoil that would bring.

However, Greece's donors gave them a few more weeks time when they agreed to pay 4.2 billion euros of the previous bailout plan due next Thursday. This was despite talk from some Eurozone partners they may block this payment, starving the Greek government of cash.

The short term relief saw US and European stock markets bounce off their lows. European stocks fell 0.4% and the Dow was down 0.7% in late trade.

The New Zealand dollar was weak overnight, falling to a low of 78.2 USc and was around 78.4 USc in morning trade. It often falls with appetites for risk and expectations about global growth and commodity prices.

Meanwhile, more bad news from Spain also worried markets. The 10 year bond yield in Spain topped the dangerous 6% mark overnight and the government was forced to bail out its fourth biggest bank Bankia. Spain's government also ordered its banks to raise 35 billion euros in capital to make up for losses in its bombed out property sector.

All this Euro-turmoil is keeping the pressure downwards on interest rates globally, and locally.

Last night ANZ and its sister bank National cut their 1 year fixed mortgage rates by 40 basis points to 5.25%, which is significantly below their advertised floating rate of 5.74%. See our article here.