International media, particularly financial news providers, were abuzz on Thursday at the news that Greece’s radical leftist government requested that it bundle its payments to the IMF this month.

The request came a day before Greece was scheduled to pay back 300 million euros to the IMF.

According to the Guardian, the country “moved closer to default and possible exit from the eurozone” after the announcement.
“A crisis that has been going on for more than five years entered a new phase when Athens surprised the IMF by saying it intended to bundle up four payments in June totaling 1.6 billion euros and make them all at the end of the month,” the Guardian wrote.

The same daily viewed the IMF payment delay as anger on the part of the Tsipras government from what it perceived as a strict set of demands by creditors in order to free-up bailout funds.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that US stocks fell at the news of the IMF delay, after European market had closed for the day.
Media reports cited the fact that eurozone member Greece became the first country to defer an IMF since the 1980s.

Bloomberg pointed to Alexis Tsipras address in parliament on Friday, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel only hours earlier saying that “we’re still far from reaching a conclusion.”

“There’s volatility over events in Europe. Investors seem to be hanging on every last comment,” over Greece, Bloomberg quoted Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston. “There’s been this feeling that Europe was on its way to better economic growth, but I think this has brought it back to the front burner,” he added.