How the Dow Jones industrial average fared on Wednesday

On Tuesday, the office of the Greek Prime Minister said that Greece remains at the negotiating table, and that the government has proposed a two-year deal with Europe’s bailout fund. The eurozone’s top official, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that the 19 finance ministers of the currency union will have a teleconference Tuesday to assess the latest proposals from Athens. The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that the Greek government failed to make a scheduled €1.6bn. “It’s not that the news out of Greece is very good”. The financial contagion risks, analysts told CNBC, should not be underestimated, but are lower than at previous flashpoints in the Greek crisis. If Greece goes, who’s next?

“If Greece gets us dead center, it will be short-lived”, Johnson said. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped almost four points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,073. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 138.40 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,757.91. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6 percent to 26,396.56 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.1 percent to 5,576.70.

EUROPEAN STOCKS: The CAC-40 in France rose 1.9 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading European shares was 1.4 per cent higher at 6,613. Greece’s stock market was closed.

That’s little consolation to people in Greece, but it should come as a relief to US investors watching the situation unfold overseas. But eurozone finance ministers will meet again on Wednesday to discuss the terms again. The country has put limits on cash withdrawals in order to keep banks from collapsing. “Markets appear to have shifted attention U.S. data releases, albeit temporarily…”

Dramatic headlines out of Greece have overshadowed USA data so far this week. In 2012, Spain had entered a recession, and the worry was that it was too big of a country to rescue. A separate survey showed USA manufacturing growth improved in June. “Although the markets are now pricing in a 36% chance of the first rate rise taking place in September, the Fed will want to see strong job creation sustained in coming months and signs that wage growth is starting to lift higher”, he added. Investors drove bond prices up in a bet that the Federal Reserve will be in no hurry to raise interest rates soon. A return to the drachma, instant devaluation, rampant inflation and a likely banking crisis.

A few years ago this would not have been the case, given extensive commercial lending exposures to the Greek government. Things have changed since then.

The ProRata poll showed the share of “no” votes dropping to 46 percent on Monday, after the imposition of capital controls, from 57 percent the day before. “The Greek standoff will be disconcerting to financial markets, but only temporarily”. The plan moved supervision of the biggest banks from the national level into the hands of the EU-wide European Central Bank. “If there is going to be volatility in global markets, it will be reflected in United States markets as well”.

– Heating oil rose 0.1 cent to close at $1.840 a gallon.

DirectTV rose 1.2 per cent on reports Justice Department antitrust regulators will approve its acquisition by AT&T for $US48.5 billion. Copper edged up half a cent to $2.64 a pound.

In commodities trading, US crude oil futures extended their fall after skidding more than 2 percent on Monday to three-week lows.