10 things you need to know in worldwide markets today

All over the world, national economies are very busy. Greece remains in the news, and the price of gold crashed slightly within seconds. These and many others make up the 10 ten things going on in markets all around the world today that you need to know.

1. Gold 'flash crashed.' On Sunday night, gold saw a mini 'flash crash,' plunging 3.8%, or $43, in a matter of seconds. The mysterious drop pushed spot gold down to $1,087 an ounce, its lowest in five years. Chris Weston, IG's chief market strategist said, "Talk from one local bank has been that 5 tonnes was dumped onto the Shanghai exchange, which is a huge order regardless of the time of day." Gold is now trading lower by 1.9%, or $21, at $1,110.70 an ounce.

2. Greece pays the ECB and the IMF. The Greek government received a 7.16 billion euro disbursement from the European Financial Stability Mechanism. But 3.5 billion euros were immediately paid to the European Central Bank, and another 2.05-billion-euro debt payment plus 1.6 billion euros of interest was paid to the International Monetary Fund. After the payments, Greece's government is left with approximately $10 million. Greece's two-year yield is down 62 basis points at 20.62%.

3. Greek banks are open. Banks in Greece are open for the first time in three weeks. Reuters reports Greeks are able to withdraw as much as 420 euros a day, up from the 60-euro limit that was imposed during the bank holiday. People will have access to their safe-deposit boxes now that the banks are open.

4. New loans surged in China. New loans in China rose 42% to 1.28 trillion yuan ($206 billion) in June, making for the fastest growth since January. The data has produced as glimmer of hope the worst is over for the Chinese economy. China's yuan weakened fractionally to 6.2097 per dollar.

5. Lockheed Martin has reportedly agreed to buy Sikorsky. The world's largest defense contractor has agreed to buy United Technology's Sikorsky unit for more than $8 billion, according to Reuters. The acquisition brings the largest maker of military helicopters under the Lockheed umbrella, which also includes warplanes and missiles. Sikorsky had approximately $7.5 billion in sales last year.

6. Morgan Stanley beats. The investment bank earned $0.85 per share on $9.7 billion in revenue. Excluding one-time items, earnings came in at an adjusted $0.79 per share. Analysts were expecting adjusted earnings of $0.74 per share on $9.14 billion in revenue, according to Bloomberg."We delivered a strong quarter across each of our businesses, through client-focused execution, expense discipline and prudent risk management," CEO James Gorman said in a press release.

7. Halliburton tops estimates. The world's largest fracking services provider announced adjusted earnings of $0.44 per share, topping the $0.29 that analysts were expecting. Revenue slid 16% compared with last year to $5.92 billion as a result of the weakness in the energy sector but managed to beat the $5.78 billion that was anticipated.

8. Global stock markets are higher. Spain's IBEX (+1.1%) leads European markets higher after China's Shanghai Composite (+0.9%) paced the gains in Asia. Japan's Nikkei was closed for Ocean Day. S&P 500 futures are higher by 2.50 points at 2,121.25.

9. US Economic data is absent. Data for the week doesn't begin to flow until Wednesday. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 2.35%.

10. IBM reports after the closing bell. The IT product and service provider is expected to earn an adjusted $3.78 per share on revenue of $20.95 billion.

Source: Business Insider.