Wall St. Set to Open Lower as Greece Worries Resurface

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wall Street was set to open lower on Wednesday after a setback in Greece's debt talks even as data showed that the U.S. economy's first-quarter contraction was smaller than earlier thought.

Date: 24 June 2015 - 21:32

News ID: ۱۵۳۷۰

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has attacked the stance of "certain" creditors as "strange" because they rejected proposals presented by Athens to bridge a budget gap, a government official said without referring to specific proposals or which of the three institutions Tsipras was blaming for the deadlock.
Tsipras will meet the heads of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission in Brussels before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers at 1300 p.m. ET.
Greece needs fresh funds to avoid defaulting on a $1.8 billion debt repayment to the IMF on June 30.
"Tensions seem elevated between Greece and its creditors," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.
"There are worries that if Greece defaults, how will it affect the global economy because of the ramifications in peripheral nations like Portugal, Spain and Italy."
The U.S. Commerce Department said gross domestic product fell at a 0.2 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, instead of the 0.7 percent it estimated last month.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, was revised to a growth of 2.1 percent from 1.8 percent.
Investors have been keeping a keen eye on economic data to see if the U.S. economy has recovered from a slow start at the beginning of the year. The Federal Reserve has said it remains data-dependent and expects to raise rates when it sees a sustained rebound in the economy.
Most economists and top Wall Street banks expect the Fed to raise rates in September as data points to a recovery.
Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week as interest rates dipped. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 1.6 percent in the week ended June 19.
S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 6 points, or 0.28 percent, with 179,995 contracts traded at 8:42 a.m. ET. Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 12 points, or 0.26 percent, on volume of 22,092 contracts while Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 81 points, or 0.45 percent, with 23,441 contracts changing hands.
Netflix (NFLX.O) shares were up 3 percent at $701.71 in premarket trading, a day after the company's board approved a seven-for-one stock split. Netflix's shares have almost doubled this year.