Morning Market Roundup: Greek Banks, Spain Sues Argentina, U.S. Futures Stay Put on EU Crisis

Here’s what’s important in the business world today:

Greece: The shockwaves from Greece’s failure to form a coalition government continued to reverberate around markets on Wednesday, with investors concerned that the country was heading for the euro exit door, thereby fracturing Europe’s single currency.

Greece is headed for another general election next month after nine days of unsuccessful talks since the May 6 poll yielded a split vote with no one party able to govern on its own.

Without agreeing to another round of austerity measures, it‘s conceivable that Greece’s partners in the eurozone will withhold the next round of bailout cash that’s keeping it afloat. An exit from the euro could then become inevitable.

In Greece, that prospect has led to further outflows of Greek deposits, with some (EURO)800 million thought to have made their way out of Greek banks since the election. Those deposits may have found their way into safe-haven alternatives, such as German and British ten-year bonds, which have risen to record highs in the secondary markets. The dollar has also mustered a lot of support through its perceived-status as a safe haven asset, especially against the euro, which has sunk to near four-month lows of around $1.27.

Oil Takeover: Spain‘s Repsol energy firm says it has sued Argentina over its takeover of the company’s majority stake in the YPF oil and gas producer.

Repsol and Texas Yale Capital Corp. are demanding that Argentina’s government make an offer for the stake that Repsol held in YPF, its former petroleum producer in Argentina. The company and the investment firm also want unspecified monetary damages from Argentina because shares of Repsol and YPF plummeted after the takeover announced last month.

U.S. Futures: U.S. stock futures are edging higher on strong data from the housing sector, yet worries persist that Greek debt problems could fracture the European Union and roil global markets.

Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 62 points to 12,667. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 7.9 points to 1,336.1. Nasdaq composite futures are up 15.25 points to 2,593.5.

Yet futures barely budged after the report with a potentially chaotic situation developing in Greece, where power-sharing talks collapsed Tuesday.

U.S. Manufacturing: U.S. factory output increased in April, helped by a gain in auto production. Busier factories have driven stronger hiring this year and helped the economy grow.

The Federal Reserve says factory production rose 0.6 percent in April, erasing a 0.5 percent decline in March.

Half of the April increase reflected a 3.9 percent jump in the production of motor vehicles and parts. That’s the fifth consecutive gain at auto plants and the biggest rise since January.

Overall industrial production increased 1.1 percent in April. In addition to the big gain at factories, output at mines and utilities both showed strong gains in April.

Factory output has risen 18.3 percent since it hit a low in June 2009, the month the recession ended

The Associated Press contributed to this report.