Bloomberg:
- Greek Bonds Plunge on Speculation EU-IMF Aid Plan May Falter. Greek bonds slumped, driving the yield premium investors demand to hold 10-year securities instead of benchmark German bunds to the most since 1998, on speculation Europe’s aid plan for the nation may falter. The yield on the two-year note surged a record 137 basis points after Market News International said Greece wants to bypass International Monetary Fund involvement in the agreement should it require aid because the terms would be too stringent. A Greek Finance Ministry official denied the report. An IMF delegation will arrive in Athens tomorrow to provide technical assistance and review the nation’s finances, Ta Nea newspaper said, without citing anyone. “Investors are pulling the trigger, taking the loss and wanting to get out,” said Christoph Rieger, co-head of fixed- income strategy at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “We’re seeing a self-fulfilling vicious spiral where there is forced selling into a thin market. We don’t see any signs of the selloff slowing down.”
- Euro Depreciates Amid Speculation EU Plan for Greece May Falter. The euro fell for a third day against the dollar amid speculation Greece may be having second thoughts about a plan that provides European Union and International Monetary Fund support in refinancing its debt. “The fear factor is back in regards to Greece,” said Dean Popplewell, an analyst in Toronto at the online currency-trading firm Oanda Corp. “People are concerned about the Greek government bypassing the IMF.” Greece received information from the IMF about conditions it would impose in return for aid, and officials found them “tough” and are concerned they might spark civil unrest, Market News International reported. It cited senior government people in Athens it didn’t identify. The report that Greece “isn’t keen on the IMF being involved in any bailout would seem to throw the whole plan into question,” said Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. in London. “As an investor, do you really want to hang around and see what’s happening next? The Greece story is definitely a negative for the euro.”
- Carlyle Gets $1.1 Billion for Financial Services Fund. Carlyle Group, the world’s second- largest private equity firm, raised $1.1 billion for its first fund targeting investments in the financial-services industry.
- Retail Sales Rose as Much as 10% in March, ICSC Says. March sales at U.S. retailers may have increased as much as 10 percent compared with a year earlier, the International Council of Shopping Centers said. Warm weather and the April 4 Easter holiday, which fell eight days earlier than last year, helped lift sales last week, ICSC Chief Economist Michael Niemira said in an e-mailed statement today. Sales tied to Easter probably accounted for 6 percentage points of last month’s gain. The industry group’s previous maximum forecast for March was 3.5 percent. Revenue at retailers rose 4.7 percent for the week ending April 3 from a year earlier, Niemira said.
- Job Openings in U.S. Decrease to 2.72 Million. Job openings in the U.S. fell in February for the first time in three months, a sign employers will be slow to expand staff even as firings subside. Openings decreased by 131,000 to 2.72 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. “Conditions in the labor market will continue to be tenuous as firms look for a pickup in sales activity before increasing employment opportunities,” Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal in New York, said before the report. “Although labor conditions remain weak, we anticipate further improvement taking hold in coming months as conditions gradually improve.” Openings fell 4.6 percent in February from a revised 2.85 million in January that was larger than previously estimated. Compared with the 14.9 million Americans who were unemployed in February, the figures indicate there are more than 5 people vying for every opening, up from about 1.8 when the recession began in December 2007.
Wall Street Journal:
- U.S. Narrows Role of Nuclear Arms. The Obama administration on Tuesday declared that it is narrowing the number of threats it seeks to deter with nuclear weapons, arguing that advances in U.S. missile defenses and conventional forces mean atomic arms are no longer needed to counterbalance most non-nuclear states. In a much anticipated, 72-page Nuclear Posture Review—the first since the Bush administration issued its own restructuring of nuclear doctrine in the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks—the administration said that even in cases of chemical and biological weapons, the U.S will no longer threaten to counter threats from non-nuclear countries that are living up to their obligations under international proliferation treaties.
- SEC Weighs Tracking of High-Speed Trades. U.S. regulators are moving toward a new rule that would track transactions by high-frequency trading firms to improve oversight of their activity, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan would see the Securities and Exchange Commission give the firms unique identifiers, allowing the agency to keep closer tabs on traders that aren't registered market makers or broker-dealers. The SEC and other global regulators are intensifying scrutiny of computer-driven trading, which has expanded rapidly and is estimated to account for two-thirds of daily U.S. stock volume.
- Apple's(AAPL) iPhone OS Sneak Peek: Multitasking, Better Games and a Mobile Advertising Platform.
- Arctic Sea Ice Melting Season Posts Latest Start on Record. The extent of sea ice over the Arctic Ocean grew until the last day of March, the latest the annual melting season has begun in 31 years of satellite records, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said.
- 3-Year Auction Meets Good Demand, But Prices Fall. Investors responded with predictably solid demand to the latest round of Treasury auctions, giving a solid bid to a sale of three-year notes. Investors, though, reacted with ambivalence, causing Treasurys to pare gains immediately after the sale.
- 'Extended Period' May Be Prolonged: FOMC Minutes. The U.S. Federal Reserve could keep interest rates ultra-low for even longer than investors anticipate if the outlook worsens or inflation drops, minutes from the central bank's last meeting suggested. The minutes released Tuesday showed lingering concern about the U.S. economy's prospects, with policymakers indicating they were in no hurry to raise interest rates. Officials believed their promise to keep rates low for "an extended period" would not unduly constrain the central bank if it felt the need to tighten monetary conditions.
- Overseas Money Looks at US Video Game Publishers.
- The new foreclosure wave is here. Yes, banks are ramping up loan modifications and ramping up short sales and ramping up deeds in lieu of foreclosure, but the plain fact is that as the systems are oiled, the loans are moving through faster, and the pig in the python is showing its face. We won't get the numbers until next week, but sources tell me they will likely be a new monthly record.
- Researchers Trace Data Theft to Intruders in China. Turning the tables on a -based computer espionage gang, Canadian and United States computer security researchers have monitored a spying operation for the past eight months, observing while the intruders pilfered classified and restricted documents from the highest levels of the Indian Defense Ministry. In a report issued Monday night, the researchers, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, provide a detailed account of how a spy operation it called the Shadow Network systematically hacked into personal computers in government offices on several continents. The Toronto spy hunters not only learned what kinds of material had been stolen, but were able to see some of the documents, including classified assessments about security in several Indian states, and confidential embassy documents about ’s relationships in West Africa, Russia and the Middle East. The intruders breached the systems of independent analysts, taking reports on several Indian missile systems. They also obtained a year’s worth of the ’s personal e-mail messages. The intruders even stole documents related to the travel of forces in Afghanistan, illustrating that even though the Indian government was the primary target of the attacks, one gap in computer security can leave many nations exposed.
- Bear Market In Bonds Could Trigger Stock-Market Melt-Up, Says Liz Ann Sonders.
- Here's The Bag of Tricks New York Uses to Hide Its Crippling Deficit.
- SEC Faces Setbacks, Skepticism in Trying to Reform Its Enforcement Image. A year-long effort by the Securities and Exchange Commission to overhaul its enforcement of laws against corporate crime has run into courtroom setbacks and internal skepticism, underlining how difficult it is for the agency to remake itself as a get-tough cop. Top SEC officials have undertaken what they describe as the most significant reform of the agency's enforcement operations in nearly 40 years, pledging to bring big cases as never before. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and her hand-picked enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, have trumpeted measures designed to rapidly file major cases, send more lawyers to the front lines of investigations and set up teams specializing in specific areas of financial crime. The actions are in response to years of criticism by former officials and investor advocates that the SEC took too light a touch with Wall Street. But now, some senior SEC officials question whether the new measures will yield the kind of results that Schapiro and Khuzami are promising. "I'm looking to see whether or not all of the new initiatives are actually resulting in improved sanctions," said SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar. "I don't yet see the empirical evidence."
Traders Magazine:
Rasmussen Reports:
- 55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem in Politics Than Big Contributions. Voters agree that big money talks in politics but apparently not as loudly as big media. Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters continue to think that media bias is a bigger problem in politics today than big campaign contributions, identical to the finding in August 2008. Thirty-two percent (32%) say big contributions are the bigger problem, but that’s down four points from the previous survey. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans and 62% of unaffiliated voters say media bias is the bigger problem in politics, a view shared by just 37% of Democrats.
- Democrats' Special Election Scramble. The prospect of losing two House seats in back-to-back special elections next month has sparked a vigorous, behind-the-scenes Democratic effort, designed to avoid an outcome that could lead to panic among the rank and file and stall the momentum generated by the recent passage of landmark health care legislation. The trajectories of the two elections, which will take place in Pennsylvania and Hawaii over a span of four days next month, have raised alarm bells among top party officials who fear that a pair of defeats in the Democratic-held seats could amount to a Massachusetts Senate sequel, overshadowing President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan and reinforcing a narrative that the Democratic Party is on track for severe losses in November.
Market News:
- The European Central Bank doesn't plan to raise interest rates any time soon, citing euro-area officials. "Monetary policy is still accommodative and it should stay that way for a while yet," an official said. "There may be scope" for the ECB to raise rates once governments start to reduce budget deficits, the person said.
- Preview - Celgene(CELG) R&D Day to Showcase Drugs Beyond Revlimid.
- Comcast(CMCSA) Wins Web Traffic Court Fight Against FCC.
- Beijing Lays Ground for Renminbi Shift. China has begun to prepare the ground publicly for a shift in exchange rate policy, days after the US Treasury said it would postpone a decision on whether to name China a “currency manipulator”. A senior government economist told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday China could widen the daily trading band for the renminbi and allow it to resume the gradual appreciation it halted in July 2008 in response to the global credit crisis. Ba Shusong, deputy director-general of the Financial Research Institute at the Development Research Center, the cabinet’s think-tank, said the timing of any shift depended on the pace of economic recovery in both the US and China. Goldman Sachs predicts Beijing will soon widen the daily trading band within which the renminbi fluctuates against the dollar from plus or minus 0.5 per cent to plus or minus 1 per cent and then allow it to gradually rise. “Outside this base case, a relatively small and symbolic one-off revaluation remains possible but the likelihood of a more sizeable move remains negligible,” Goldman Sachs economists Helen Qiao and Yu Song said in a report.
- Stephen King: A Lesson in Public Finances History. Governments cannot increase borrowings indefinitely. Someone has to take the pain. Promising cuts is easy; delivering them is an entirely different matter. Monetary stability is ultimately grounded in fiscal stability. If, after the general election, it simply proves impossible to deliver the necessary budgetary cuts, what then happens? Does sterling collapse? Does the new government raise the inflation target? Will the printing presses be turned back on? Will Britain see its credit rating downgraded, thereby increasing the cost of international borrowing? I don't have the answer, but I know it's time to dust off the history books.
- Arctic Ice Increased During Freezing Winter. The amount of sea ice covering the Arctic has dramatically increased during the cold winter, reaching levels not seen at this time of year for almost a decade.
- An International Monetary Fund delegation will arrive in Greece's capital tomorrow to provide technical assistance and review the country's finances.
- European Union officials in Athens last week forecast that Greece's economy may contract 3% this year.
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