Hello friends and Fortune readers.
Wall Street stock futures are mixed early Friday as Germany prepares to give its blessing to talks on a new bailout for Greece and China’s stock markets finish the week on a strong note. Crude oil futures have fallen to a three-month low of $50.81, on ongoing fears about oversupply in the wake of Iran’s nuclear deal.
Today’s must-read story is from Fortune’s Jonathan Vanian detailing how Italian-based security firm Hacking Team has enabled the intelligence agencies of numerous countries to spy on their citizens.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
1. Paul Singer’s Elliott loses Samsung vote
The anti-semitic campaign may have been pulled, but it had its effect. Shareholders in Samsung C&T, the construction and trading arm of the Korean conglomerate, narrowly voted through a disputed takeover offer from a company controlled by the son of Samsung’s group chairman. The takeover has been the second big public embarrassment for Korea’s traditional business elite in a year, following the antics of “Nut Rage Princess” Heather Cho at Korean Airlines.
2. Germany weighs Greek bailout
Germany’s Parliament will vote today on Greece’s latest bailout proposal, which includes austerity measures and pension cuts that received the approval of the Greek Parliament earlier this week. The European Central Bank increased emergency funding to Greece for the first time in two weeks Thursday, and the country’s lawmakers approved cuts needed to start talks on the $94 billion package. ECB President Mario Draghi said he views Greece’s place in the euro zone as secure.
3. Earnings, updates from GE
This morning brings second-quarter earnings results from General Electric (GE) and the conglomerate’s investors will be keen to hear news on GE’s plan to sell off most of its GE Capital finance business as well as updates on the regulatory obstacles in the way of the company’s attempt to sell its appliances business and the GE-Alstom deal. As far as GE’s financial results are concerned, the company is expected to post a decline in revenue due to the strong U.S. dollar.
4. More earnings
Also reporting quarterly results today is Swedish appliance manufacturer Electrolux (ELUXB), the company looking to buy GE’s appliance business. Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department sued to block the GE-Electrolux deal on the grounds that it would reduce competition in the market for kitchen appliances. Meanwhile, aerospace conglomerate Honeywell International (HON) reports second-quarter results, with the strong U.S. dollar expected to weigh down the company’s revenues. Railroad holding company Kansas City Southern (KSU) also reports second-quarter numbers today for a period affected by weak coal freight volumes.
5. Gauging inflation
The U.S. Labor Department will release the Consumer Price Index for June today and the index likely increased at a slower rate than during the previous month. The CPI, which is used as a measure of inflation in the U.S. economy, is expected to have risen 0.3% last month, versus 0.4% growth in May.
— Reuters contributed to this report.
