AWARDS

Caution about Greece ahead of a meeting between its prime minister and Germany's Angela Merkel prompted a nervy start to the week for European markets on Monday.

Shares and currencies in Asia, in contrast, had rallied on easy monetary policy hopes and another tick down in oil prices.

The euro and Europe's main share markets fell in early trading, giving back some of the gains made at the end of last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve eased fears of an aggressive rise in its interest rates.

Attention was focusing back on Greece with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras due to meet Angela Merkel in Berlin later.

As Greece needs to reach agreement with its creditors to secure fresh funds, Athens' plan seems to be to seek mercy from EU leaders. By doing so it is going over the heads of euro zone finance ministers and the European Central Bank and IMF, hoping that they will see the broad political cost of a Greek collapse rather than focus on the nitty gritty of funding and required economic reforms.

That doesn't look like a winning strategy so far however. The message from EU leaders has been clear -- no reforms, no money.

"What we have essentially is a continuation of the Greece cash squeeze where it is a dancing on the edge of a precipice," said Alvin Tan, an FX strategist at Societe Generale in London.

"They are running out of money so it looks like the next 1-2 weeks are going to be pretty important."

The weakness in the euro helped lift the dollar index but there was no convincing rebound from the greenback. Last week saw its biggest fall since 2011 after the Fed issued a warning about the currency's recent strength.

The Fed's interest rates tend to set the marker for global policy and the possibility of an extension to the era of record low interest rates had lifted risk appetite in Asia.

Weaker dollar signs powered Asian currencies higher, with Malaysia's ringgit, the second-worst performing Asian currency this year, marking its best day in seven weeks.

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On a day when Amazon.com AMZN announced that it would be expanding one-hour delivery for certain items into more U.S. metropolitan areas, the company received better news regarding a logistics program that has been viewed by many as a pipe dream.

The Federal Aviation Administration granted the Seattle-based online retailer the ability to legally test its much-discussed Amazon Prime Air delivery drones on Thursday, a small win for the company, which has been tussling with the government for permission ever since CEO Jeff Bezos announced the program in a Dec. 2013 interview with “60 Minutes.” Though it is a move in the right direction for Amazon, the certification is far from the sweeping victory that the company would have liked and still places heavy restrictions on a program that will not be delivering toothpaste and toilet paper to Americans’ doorsteps anytime soon.

The FAA’s certification will require Amazon’s drone operators to have “at least a private pilot’s certificate,” the same document required for a private, non-commercial plane owner to fly a Cessna. Current drone hobbyists have no such license needed to operate their drones, while some companies have recently received case-by-case commercial exemptions that allow them to fly without the same conditions that have been placed on Amazon.

“By insisting Amazon obtain an experimental airworthiness certificate, the FAA is treating drones the same as a Boeing 747 that’s operating for development or testing purposes,” says Brendan Schulman, a lawyer at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. ”This approach is some progress for Amazon specifically, but it’s still limiting for innovating companies in general.”

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Many Americans don't pay much attention to what Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and "the Fed" do, but that could change very soon.

In June, the Fed could do something it hasn't done since Barack Obama was a U.S. senator: raise interest rates.

Don't hit the snooze button. An interest rate hike will impact everyone who has a home mortgage, car loan, savings account or money in the stock market.

In short, life is about to get better for savers and a little harder for borrowers. Investors could also face tougher times.

"The losers will be borrowers and the winners will be savers," says Ted Peters, CEO of Bluestone Financial Institutions Fund and a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Here's the full run down:

1. Mortgage rates will rise 

As the Fed signals its intention to raise rates, borrowers are rushing to get deals done now. There's been a big rush of mortgage applications in 2015, driven by people refinancing to lock in lower interest rates.

"People thinking of buying a house should act quickly to lock in today's low rates," says Dean Croushore, an economics professor at the University of Richmond and former Philadelphia Fed economist.

An average, 30-year mortgage fetches a 3.8% interest rate now, according to Freddie Mac. That's down from a year ago when rates were closer to 4.3%. The Fed cut rates to historic lows in 2008 in part to reboot the housing market, which collapsed when the housing bubble popped.

When the Fed likely raises rates this year, it will push mortgage rates and auto loans up, experts say. That said, it's uncertain if that will cause home or car buying to slow down.

2. Savers succeed 

Ever since the financial crisis, folks who put their money in the bank have gained next to nothing. With interest rates so low, people who played it safe have been getting the short end of the stick.

That will change for the better for people with savings accounts. Once the Fed raises interest rates, savers will gain more interest on the money they deposit at their bank.

The average interest rate on a savings account is a mere 0.44% right now, according to Bankrate.

Savers can smile all the way to the bank knowing the job market is looking good too.

3. Jobs, jobs, jobs 

A big reason the Fed is planning to raise interest rates is because the U.S. economy is improving, especially the job market. Unemployment is down to its lowest level since 2008, and the U.S. has added millions of jobs in the past year.

"The labor market is improving," Yellen said Wednesday. "Some of the headwinds that have been holding the economy back are beginning to recede."

A rate hike would be Yellen's two thumbs up that the economy is healthy.

The only concern is that a rate hike could hurt future wage growth. Many Americans haven't sensed the success of the economy's recovery because wage growth remains flat. The Fed wants to see about 3.5% wage growth, but it was only 2% in February.

However, Yellen made clear that wage growth isn't a requirement to raise interest rates. Wages are usually the last measure of the economy's health to move in the right direction.

"We may not see wage growth pick up," Yellen said. "I wouldn't say that is a precondition to raising rates."

4. Rocky ride for stocks 

The stock market rallied big on Wednesday after the Fed released its official statement.

Don't take that one day as a preview for the rest of the year though. Investors were largely reacting to language in the Fed statement suggesting that the central bank won't raise rates in April and will likely raise rates only a bit in June or later.

Any rate hike will almost certainly increase volatility. Stocks are already considered expensive and many on Wall Street fear markets are overdue for a correction (when they drop 10% or more), which hasn't happened since 2011.

"Overall measures of equity valuations are on the high side but not outside of historical ranges," Yellen reiterated Wednesday.

A Fed rate hike could make stocks less attractive to investors. It would also raise interest rates on U.S. bonds, which are considered safer investments.

Spring is coming, but a Fed rate hike could set the sun -- at least for a while -- on the phenomenal gains investors have experienced in recent years.

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Investors were anxious as the Federal Open Market Committee kicked off a two-day policy meeting, to be followed by a statement from Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday afternoon.

Most economists expect the Fed to remove a pledge to be “patient’’ about raising interest rates from its statement. Market strategists said with or without a change in the language, the Fed may still be on track to raise rates as early as June.

“People are waiting for the Fed to provide some degree of clarity,’’ said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In addition to anxiety about the Fed statement, options expiration on Friday may have contributed to the day’s volatility, said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist, Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston.

While higher rates would be a sign of strength in the US economy, some investors question whether the economy is strong enough to handle increased borrowing costs.

Make sure to place your trades before today’s statement. A lot of money can be made today.

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