Greek shares nosedive after ECB move to limit borrowing options for country’s banks + MORE Feb 5th

ATHENS, Greece – Jittery investors dumped Greek shares Thursday after the European Central Bank tightened the screws on the country’s banking system, piling pressure on the new anti-austerity government to seek a compromise with bailout creditors.
Shares on the volatile Athens stock exchange dived nearly 10 per cent on opening, but later recovered a bit and were trading about 6 per cent down. European markets also dropped, with the Euro Stoxx 50 index down 0.6 per cent.
In a surprise announcement late Wednesday, the ECB said it would stop lending to Greek banks using the nation’s junk-rated government bonds as collateral. The ECB justified the move by saying prospects appear uncertain for a new deal between the radical left government in Athens and its international bailout creditors.
Greek banks retain access to emergency lending, but at a higher cost and subject to ECB approval.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ 10-day-old government played down the impact on Greece’s banking system and insisted that it would stick to its anti-austerity agenda…

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PARIS – Sanofi SA says its net profit soared 26.3 per cent in the fourth quarter thanks to a lower charges against its Lemtrada multiple sclerosis treatment.
The world’s third-largest drugmaker by sales reported net profit of 1.34 billion ($1.52 billion) in the period. Sanofi’s year earlier earnings had been weighed down by a 919-million-euro charge mainly accounted for by a writedown on the value of Lemtrada.
The Paris-based company sacked CEO Christopher Viehbacher last October, citing a lack of communication with the board.
Interim boss Serge Weinberg told reporters on a conference call that the search for Viehbacher’s replacement “is in the final stage” and that a new CEO would be named in the first quarter.
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Remember yesterday, when oil seemed to be on a tentative rebound?
Yeah, forget all about that.
Oil had lost nine per cent by the end of yesterday, and the price is now back under $50 and has been vacillating on both sides of $48 so far this morning.
The cause? A reversal of hopeful assumption-making, because a drop in the number of U.S. rigs does not automatically equal a drop in production. American crude stocks once again broke records, with production hitting more than $413 million barrels last week, the highest weekly number since records began in 1982. A strengthening U.S. dollar probably didn’t help.
The Loonie responded by wiping out recent gains, dropping more than a cent to close the day below 80 cents, again. The TSX also dropped by almost 70 points, which kept much of the three-digit gains of the last few days.
What’s on today? In the U.K., the Bank of England will make its interest rate announcement. The rate is expected to stay at 0.5 per cent, but as Central banks have reminded us lately, expectations are often wrong (see: Bank of Canada, Australia, Russia…