
European stocks advance further. Greek bank resumed operations, however, the stock exchange in Athens is still closed. European markets expanded on the information that the Danish chemical company OCI will merge with the American fertilizer producer CF Industries. OCI shares added 11%. The software producer Aveva Group reported about the merger deal with Schneider Electric as well; Aveva stocks soared 29%. No important macroeconomic statistics are published today in the eurozone. To be noted, the European stocks trade volumes are very small, they are about 1/3 below the monthly average.
Nikkei has been rising for 5 straight days, following global indices. Today Japanese stocks are closed due to Marine Day. Bank of Japan will release the June meeting minutes tomorrow at 1:50 CET.

This morning global gold prices showed strong negative dynamics. The gold futures hit a 5-year low amid stabilization in Greece and the expensive dollar. The bearish movement was accompanied with a volatility boost at Shanghai Gold Exchange. China reported the decrease in gold reserves to 1.65% from 1.8%, recorded in June, 2009. At the same time the absolute volume of gold increased 57% to 1658 tons. Some market participants suppose that China may cut the physical gold reserve volume to 2 thousand tons.
Drop in gold prices did not affect copper and silver much. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that hedge funds reduced copper and silver short positions. Meanwhile, the gold net long position has hit the low since 2006, the year when the experts started publishing these data on a regular basis.