The new Greek Finance Minister said today that after the June 17th election, 2b euros have come back to Greek banks in the form of deposits. Greek banks were supposedly losing about 700mm euros per day in early June. After falling 15% in the past two days, the Nat’l Bank of Greece is up 2.4% and Eurobank rose 4%. Italy sold 9b euros of 6 month bills, in line with their target amount, at a yield of 2.96%, 86 bps above those sold in May. To put into perspective, Italy pays the same rate on 6 month debt that the Czech Republic pays on 10 yr debt. Italian business confidence unexpectedly rose from the lowest level since Aug ’09 but at 88.9, it’s still the 2nd weakest figure since then. In the US, historically low rates did not help mortgage applications as refi’s fell 8.3% and purchases were down for a 2nd week by 1.4%.
