Good morning everyone. Today looks like another decent trading day for Asia as traders ignored Greece and sent futures on the region’s largest equity markets all soaring higher. Meanwhile in the A-share ETF space, short interest is building up at a record pace, while in the U.S., Fitbit shares jumped as much as 60% in its initial public offering.
Here’s what else you need to know:
Asian futures shrug off another Greece-Troika train wreck. Ignoring the nth breakdown in Greece’s debt talks, traders sent futures on Asia’s largest equity markets bid up. Contracts on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index soared 0.8% in the Osaka pre-market while futures on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and its mainland-tracking Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.5% and 0.7% respectively in their latest trading. Bloomberg
A lot of people are shorting A-share ETFs. Short interest on Yuan-denominated equity ETFs have surged to new highs recently as fears of an imminent correction drew China bears out of hibernation. Investors have also upped the pace of pulling money from China-centric ETFs, with the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF seeing its largest outflow since inception just last week. Bloomberg
U.S. junk bond holders rush for the exit. For the second week in a row, investors long on U.S. corporate junk bond mutual funds and ETFs continued to pull their money, leading these funds to bleed at their fastest pace since December 2014. The rise in withdrawals came after the Fed downgraded its outlook on the U.S. and hinted that they might be raising rates slower than initially thought. Financial Times
Larry Summers joins startup. Former Treasury Secretary Summers is joining OpenGov as an advisor. OpenGov, a Silicon Valley startup, focuses on government transparency. Seattle PI
Fitbit shares jump after open. Fitbit made its stock market debut Thursday, and investors went wild. The company was valued at $6.5 billion, with shares climbing as much as 60%. With its 52% open, Fitbit is one of the 10 biggest opening IPOs this year. Time
Church shooting suspect arrested. Dylann Roof, the suspect in Wednesday’s deadly shooting in South Carolina, has been arrested. The 21-year-old Roof allegedly shot and killed nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston. CNN
NYC closes off parks to traffic. New York City is banning car traffic in the main loops of Central Park and Prospect Park beginning June 29 and July 6 respectively. Mayor Bill de Blasio says that banning cars, for the first time since they were initially allowed in the parks almost 100 years ago, will make biking, walking, running, and visiting the parks in general safer and more pleasant. Bloomberg
“Grey” breaks records before being published. E.L. James’ latest book in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series is the No. 1 best seller on Amazon. The book was released on Thursday, title character Christian Grey’s birthday, but first broke records as the top Kindle preorder book of the year. MarketWatch
Photo credit: Gary via Flickr