IMF says US Fed should delay interest rate rise until 2016
The International Monetary Fund has warned the US Federal Reserve against raising interest rates this year.
A rise risks adding to the growing economic and political threats to US growth, the IMF said in a health check on the world's largest economy.
Many economists had forecast a rise in September, although recent economic and jobs data had dampened expectations.
A rate rise would trigger more gains in the value of the dollar, something that the IMF has said previously this year could stall growth and impact across emerging markets.
The dollar has risen about 20% against a basket of currencies during the past 12 months.
European leaders give last chance to leftist Syriza government to thrash out a deal to end crisis and prevent euro exit.
The Greek prime minister has said that Athens was ready to make "efforts" to reach a "viable" deal to end the crisis, as eurozone leaders set a Sunday deadline to thrash out a final bailout agreement.
European leaders gave Alexis Tsipras a last-minute chance on Tuesday after he failed to present them with a detailed plan in an emergency summit in Brussels.
The eurozone summit was called after Greek voters rejected international creditors' bailout offer in a weekend referendum. The ruling leftist Syriza party lead by Tsipras campaigned against its lenders' offer that called for more austerity in exchange for rescue loans.
Building BRICS influence?
On the face of it, they may seem unlikely partners - the so-called BRICS nations comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and more recently South Africa.
The nations are still considered to be emerging economies, but are increasingly challenging Western dominance of global financial institutions.
Russia is hosting the seventh BRICS summit in the remote western city of Ufa, looking to send a message of strength and unity.
But while BRICS may have been the acronym of choice, it by no means reflects the economic order of the group members, or their individual influence.
So can mutual aspirations outweigh individual ambitions?
Greece is a tiny economy with virtually no financial ties to Australia and of limited economic importance to the rest of the world – even Europe. Thus the contagion to other European countries is a possibility but not a probability.
But the contagion effects of a crash in the Chinese stock market to the Chinese economy, Australia and the rest of the world is much more real
If anything, the stock market seems to be the best candidate for a severe correction. Purely from a trend perspective (without engaging in technical analysis), it seems that the broad markets have lost momentum, as evidenced by the S&P500 momentum (RSI) versus price divergence. For now, it seems that the path of least resistance will be lower.
One common argument is that the Affordable Care Act is hurting health insurers, and pushing them to merge — but there’s limited evidence that the biggest players are struggling. While the ACA capped insurers’ ability to take profits, industry analysts have been fairly bullish on the sector
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