by Calculated Risk on 2/16/2015 07:11:00 PM

From the WSJ: Greek Financing Talks Break Down Amid Wide Gulf Over Bailout

“The general feeling [among ministers] is still that the best way forward would be for the Greek authorities to seek an extension of the current program,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch minister who presides over the regular meetings with his counterparts. “We simply need more time,” he added.

After the meeting, Mr. Varoufakis said he had been ready to request a four-month extension to the existing bailout, but not under the conditions that Mr. Dijsselbloem and the other ministers were offering. “Our only condition for doing this was that we should not be asked to impose measures that are clearly recessionary and clearly uncalled for in the state of humanitarian crisis we have in Greece,” he said.

I've read the proposed draft statement for an extension - and it was absurd - there is no way the Greeks will sign it.

Tuesday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, the NY Fed Empire State Manufacturing Survey for February. The consensus is for a reading of 9.0, down from 10.0 last month (above zero is expansion).

• At 10:00 AM, the February NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of 58, up from 57 in January. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of February 15, 2015

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: currently S&P futures are down 9 and DOW futures are down 65 (fair value).

Oil prices were up over the last week with WTI futures at $52.72 per barrel and Brent at $61.40 per barrel.  A year ago, WTI was at $100, and Brent was at $109 - so prices are down about 45% year-over-year.

Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are around $2.25 per gallon (down about $1.10 per gallon from a year ago).  If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com