● US payrolls post a solid increase in June but wages are flat…
● US jobless claims jumped more than expected last week…
● And US factory orders slumped in May…
● The US consumer comfort index rose last week to its highest level since April…
● Eurozone Composite PMI increased to a 4-year high last month…
● While China’s services sector expands at slowest rate in over a year in June…
● Meanwhile, Europe braces for Greece’s referendum on Sunday on a bailout packaged that expired on Tuesday. Regardless, polling shows the public is evenly split.

Private-sector payrolls rose 223,000 in June, a touch less than expected, based on Econoday.com’s consensus forecast. That’s a respectable gain, but it’s well below the previous month’s 250,000 advance, which was revised lower in today’s release. On its face, the latest results continue to paint an upbeat profile, but the numbers come with caveats, including the mild but ongoing deceleration in the year-over-year increase.
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● US private-sector job growth accelerated in June via ADP’s estimate…
● As US factory activity rose to a 5-month high in June…
● US construction spending reached a post-recession high in May…
● While mortgage applications in the US fell 4.7% last week…
● Global manufacturing growth eased closer to a 2-year low in June…
● And the Greek crisis lingers as uncertainty and confusion reign supreme with no resolution in sight.

Private nonfarm payrolls in the US are projected to increase by 211,000 (seasonally adjusted) in tomorrow’s update for June from the Labor Department, based on The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The prediction reflects a substantially lesser gain vs. the 262,000 advance in May.
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The markets staggered to the year’s midpoint with a thud, with most of the major asset classes suffering losses in June. The exception: broadly defined commodities (Bloomberg Commodity Index), which posted a modest 1.7% gain last month. The rest of the field was either flat or (in most cases) in the red. The big loser: US real estate investment trusts (REITs), which shed a hefty 4.6% in June, based on the MSCI REIT Index, leaving this measure of securitized real estate off by more than 6% so far in 2015.
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● Greece in default as eurozone set to discuss new bailout proposal…
● US consumer confidence rises in June, beats forecasts…
● US S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index annual pace eases to 4.2% gain in April…
● PMI: Initial estimate of euro area manufacturing growth in June confirmed…
● As China’s manufacturing activity posts slight improvement in June.

The ISM Manufacturing Index is expected to tick fractionally lower to 52.7 in tomorrow’s update for June vs. the previous month, based on The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The prediction is still above the neutral 50.0 mark and so the current outlook still calls for moderate growth for this benchmark of economic activity in the US manufacturing sector.
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Private nonfarm payrolls in the US are projected to increase by 200,000 (seasonally adjusted) in tomorrow’s June update of the ADP Employment Report, based on The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The average projection is fractionally below May’s increase.
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The escalating Greek crisis has raised new questions about the timing of the Federal Reserve’s plans for the first US rate hike since 2006. But by some accounts, it’s still mostly noise on this side the Atlantic. “This isn’t a ‘watch Greece’ situation,” says Roberto Perli, a former Fed staffer who’s now at Cornerstone Macro. “While we have chaos in Greece, there are no signs of dramatic contagion yet, and that’s why it doesn’t change the Fed’s tone.”
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● Greece is set to default at the end of today…
● But the Greek crisis isn’t expected to delay the Fed’s first rate hike…
● Meanwhile, US pending home sales rose to a 9-year high in May…
● As Puerto Rico faces bankruptcy…
● Eurozone inflation ticked lower this month while the jobless rate remains stable but elevated at 11.1%…
● And Germany’s unemployment remains close to an historic low in June as retail sales increased for a second month in Europe’s largest economy.