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S&P 500 closes in on a new high; Nasdaq, Best week since October

Markets breathed a sigh of relief as progress was made toward a deal that would keep Greece in the euro zone. The Nasdaq delivered its best week since October while hitting a new all-time intraday high, and the S&P 500 had its strongest performance in four months to close in on a new high of its own. 

Despite a public referendum rejecting more austerity, Greece's parliament approved measures - including sharp spending cuts and tax increases - necessarily to secure additional bailout funds. In response, euro zone finance ministers agreed in principle to pursue a new deal and the ECB raised its ceiling for emergency lending to Greek banks. The International Monetary Fund, however, has warned that Greece's need for debt restructuring goes "well beyond what has been considered to date". 

While second quarter earnings thus far have been decent, analysts are still expecting the first decline in S&P 500 yearover-year earnings since third quarter 2012. Of the 61 S&P 500 companies that have reported first quarter 2015 results, 72% have beaten earnings expectations while 56% have beaten revenue expectations. The blended earnings growth rate for the second quarter stands at -3.7%, according to FactSet, an improvement over the -4.5% expected when the quarter ended. Google, Citibank and Netflix impressed this week, while Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Advanced Micro Devices were among the disappointments. 


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