10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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July 02, 2015

Here is what you need to know.

It's jobs day. The consensus is calling for the addition of 233,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in June and for the unemployment rate to tick down to 5.4%. Average hourly earnings are expected to edge up 0.2% month-over-month.

Greece's finance minister will resign if the 'yes' vote wins. Yanis Varoufakis suggested he would resign from his post if Greece voted to accept its creditors' bailout proposals. The Greek government has been campaigning for a "no" vote. As for the fate of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the event of a "yes" vote, Varoufakis said: "When you go to battle, you don't talk about defeat. We are going to win on Monday [when the result will be announced]." Greece's two-year yield is down 122 basis points at 34.81%.

Chinese stocks remained volatile. China's Shanghai Composite (-3.5%) continued to see unprecedented volatility. Overnight, China's securities regulator, the CSRC, announced the relaxing of margin rules and said it would allow brokerages to issue bonds to support additional margin lending.

Sweden's central bank cut rates. The Riksbank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate 10 basis points to -0.35%. "Inflation is rising and economic activity in Sweden is continuing to strengthen," the central bank said. "But uncertainty abroad has increased, and it is difficult to assess the consequences of the situation in Greece." The Swedish krona is weaker by 0.7% at 8.4415.

Puerto Rico was downgraded at Moody's. The rating agency cut the rating on Puerto Rico's general obligation bonds to Caa3 from Caa2. Moody's suggested, "Governor Alejandro García Padilla's declaration that the commonwealth cannot pay its debt, the suspension of a law requiring monthly general obligation debt service deposits and the decision to devise broad restructuring plans are clear signs that holders of even those Puerto Rico securities with strong legal protections face significant loss." The outlook for Puerto Rico remains negative.

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Family Dollar posted a mixed quarter. The discount retailer announced adjusted earnings of $0.74 per share, which missed the Wall Street estimate of $0.81 per share. Revenue rose 2.6% versus a year ago to $2.728 billion, slightly outpacing the $2.722 billion that was anticipated. Same-store sales climbed 0.7% for the quarter.

Parkway Properties is exploring strategic alternatives. The real-estate investment trust is considering selling itself. The company is valued at about $2 billion.

Global stock markets are mixed. Britain's FTSE (+0.2%) leads Europe higher, and France's CAC (-0.2%) lags. Overnight, Japan's Nikkei (+1.0%) paced the gains, while China's Shanghai Composite (-3.5%) was an outlier. S&P 500 futures are higher by 3.75 points at 2,074.75.

US economic data is heavy. Initial and continuing claims, nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly earnings, and average workweek are all due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data concludes for the week with the release of factory orders at 10 a.m. ET and natural-gas inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 2 basis points at 2.44%.

US markets are closed Friday in observance of Independence Day. The Greek referendum will occur Sunday.