• Germany’s Angela Merkel reflected the frustration across the EU in saying that Greece is running out of time to agree on the fiscal measures needed to meet requirements for their bailout funds. She was meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris earlier today. Greece’s Papademos is struggling to reach agreement across parties on further austerity measures. Complicating negotiations, two of the largest union groups began 24 hour strikes. From Bloomberg News.
• UBS reported a drop in 4th quarter profit of 76%. The bank included cautionary comments on Q1 in their results, as well. The UBS results come on the back of very poor earnings from Deutsche Bank last week. The soft European economy and a poor investment banking environment were the culprits. UBS is still reeling from the losses incurred in its unauthorized trading scandal in September. From Bloomberg News.
• Industrial output in Germany fell 2.9% in December, far under performing estimates. It was the largest drop since the heart of the financial crisis in 2009. Industrial orders did improve, however. From Reuters News.