“I’m always thinking about losing money as opposed to making money. Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.” – Paul Tudor Jones

1. China Grows at Slowest Pace Since Financial Crisis — China’s economy grew at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis in the first quarter of 2015. China’s exports sank 15% vs. March. This figure was a shock to economists who’d forecast an 11.7% rise. Overall Q1 shrank 6.3% vs. the 6% growth target in ’15.
2. Standard & Poor’s Downgraded Greece’s Credit Rating to CCC+ with a Negative Outlook — S&P cited a substantial risk of a Greek default due to the country’s drawn out negotiations with its creditors.
3. Greek Government Bonds Plunge as Default Fears Grow — MarketWatch, Greek government bonds plunged late last week, shaken by yet another downgrade and growing expectations that the country will be forced into a default. yields on the country’s two-year bonds had soared close to 4 percentage points on the day to more than 27%. Meanwhile, yields on the country’s 10-year debt advanced by a little more than 1 percentage point to a shade under 13%— their highest in over two years. An inverted yield curve, where shorter-term debt yields more than longer-dated bonds, is a classic signal that investors see a very high risk of default.
4. China Regulators to Allow Short-Selling by Fund Manager — the new regulation was announced last Friday to allow fund managers to lend shares for short-selling and will also expand the number of stocks investors can short sell. The moves were announced by the Securities Association of China aimed at increasing supplies of securities and cooling down China’s markets. Various forms of government stimulus and a frenzy of buying by investors have driven the Shanghai Composite index up by 33% year-to-date, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng index up 17% year-to-date.
5. S&P Energy Sector (XLE) Rebound — the Energy Sector has held its respective quadruple bottom, and has broken out above its downtrend line. Below is Energy Sector chart for the last 12-month.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: