Markets slightly higher Monday after Greece austerity plan approved
The Canadian Press
Posted: Feb 13, 2012 5:40 AM ET
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2012 4:53 PM ET
People walk past graffiti that reads 'rob to gain money' on a wall of the central bank of Greece in Athens on Monday after a weekend of rioting. Firefighters were dousing smouldering buildings and cleanup crews swept up rubble. (Dimitri Messinis/Associated Press)
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The Toronto stock market was little changed Monday afternoon as early relief that the Greek parliament passed a package of austerity measures to secure a another bailout was tempered by questions about when Greece would actually get the money.
The S&P/TSX composite index was well off early highs, climbing 9.27 points to 12,398.69.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.35 of a cent to close at 100.07 cents US.
U.S. markets were more solidly positive as the Dow Jones industrial average gained 72.81 points to 12,874.04, the Nasdaq climbed 27.51 points to 2,931.39 and the S&P 500 was up 9.13 points to 1,351.77.
Greece's fellow Eurozone members had demanded drastic cuts in civil service jobs, minimum wages and welfare to secure the €130 billion ($170 billion US) bailout package.
Without the bailout, and a related bond swap deal with private creditors, Greece will be pushed into a disorderly default on bond repayments next month. That would see cause the country's financial sector to collapse, fuelling further social unrest and destabilizing the wider European and global markets.
No bailout decision until early March
Between now and the looming Greek bond repayment on March 20, there is also the risk that some private creditors may resist the deal to swap their bonds for new ones with a lower value.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Germany's finance ministry said the final approval of a new bailout won't be given until early March. That means the eurozone will have to split the final bailout approval from a related debt relief deal that will take several weeks to implement and which has to be finalized ahead of the March 20 bond repayment.
Marianne Kothe said that the other euro countries will first want to see how many of Greece's private creditors participate in the bond swap which designed to cut Greece's debt by €100 billion.
The March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained $2.24 to $100.91 US a barrel.
March copper dropped three cents to $3.84 US a pound while April gold fell 40 cents to $1,724.90 US an ounce.
European markets posted solid advances following the Greek vote with London's FTSE 100 index ending the day ahead 0.91 per cent, the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.34 per cent and Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.68 per cent.
with files from CBC News and the Associated Press
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