The equity markets in the United States and around the world declined amid investors’ concern regarding the possibility the Greece would exit the Euro zone.
In the United States, the S&P 500 declined 2.09% to 2,057.64 point, the highest decline since April 2014. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 1.95% to 17,596.35 points, the NASDAQ fell 2.40% to 4,958.47 points and the Russel 2000 slumped 2.58% to 1,246.75 per share.
Last Saturday, Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras interrupted the final debt talks and called for a referendum on July 5 whether the country would accept the terms included in the financial package offered by its international lenders.
Greece closed its banks and implemented capital controls, which could deepen the crisis in the country and the risk that would drive its exit from the European region.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Kevin Caron, a market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. commented, “This is going to get quite messy between now and the weekend. “There was an expectation that something would break positively at the last minute, but it appears it’s going to be a little messier than that. The rating agency downgrade is certainly part of it.”
Greece will not repay IMF on Tuesday
A Greek government official confirmed that Greece will not pay the €1.6 billion due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday. The finance ministers in the European region repeated said that Greece does not have the funds to repay IMF unless it would reach an agreement to unlock the €7.2 billion frozen bailout funds.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde recently stated that Greece would be I default on July 1 if it fails to pay its obligation. An IMF spokesman also indicated the possibility that Greece would be classified “in arrears” if it would miss the payment.
Greece is closer to exiting the euro zone currency if Greek banks would be cut off from the emergence funding of the European Central Bank (ECB). Analysts expect the ECB to maintain the emergency funding at least for this week, and Greece could default and remain in the euro zone.
U.S. stock market gainers and losers
The stock price of Citigroup (NYSE:C) declined 2.59% to $54.88 per share. Analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded their rating on the stock to Neutral from Buy.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that Citigroup is now the largest derivatives dealers in the United States, beating JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). The stock value of JP Morgan dropped 2.52% to $67.21 per share.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) tanked 1.97% to $44.37 per share. The company is reportedly shutting down its online display advertising business, and it is expected to cut 1,200 jobs.
Juno Therapeutics gained (NASDAQ:JUNO) gained more than 38% to $63.99 per share during the extended-trading hours around 6:14 PM in New York. The stock benefited from its 10-year partnership agreement with Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG), which agreed to pay Juno approximately $1 billion including the purchase of 9.3 million JUNO stock worth $93 per share.
The stock price of Celgene closed $114.91 per share, down by 2.55%. The stock declined further to $113.77 per share after hours.
