Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Euro-Area Services, Manufacturing Contracted in March: Economy. Euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted more than economists forecast in March, adding to signs the economy has slipped into recession. A euro-area composite index based on a survey of purchasing managers in both industries dropped to 48.7 from 49.3 in February, London-based Markit Economics said in an initial estimate today. Economists forecast a gain to 49.6, according to the median of 21 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. Europe's economy may struggle to regain strength after shrinking 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter as governments toughen budget cuts, rising oil prices erode consumers' purchasing power and global demand weakens. "Today's figures clearly show that the recession in the euro zone is far from over," said Peter Vanden Houte, an economist at ING Group in Brussels. "This increases the danger that the debt crisis could come back with vengeance" by making it more difficult for governments to cut budget deficits.
• Italy, Spain Too Big for Firewall to Save, Schaeuble Aid Says. Italy and Spain would be "too big to be saved" by the euro-area's financial backstop and debate should focus on the firewall's quality rather than its size, German Finance Ministry official Ludger Schuknecht said. Ideas "floating around" to boost Europe's defenses against the debt crisis aren't "the ideas that the mega- firewall fans might like," Schuknecht, who heads the ministry's department of fiscal policy, international finance and monetary policy, said at a Bloomberg Link Sovereign Debt Conference in Frankfurt today. "Italy and Spain are too big to be saved by these kind of numbers that we are putting into the window," he said. Making the firewall credible to markets "is much more important than talking about big numbers that are afterwards just a show."
• Sovereign, Corporate Bond Risk Rises on Slowing Growth Concern. Credit-default swaps insuring government and company debt rose after a contraction in manufacturing in Europe and China triggered concern the global economy will slow. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of swaps on 15 governments jumped 10 basis points to 280, according to BNP Paribas SA prices at 10:41 a.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of credit-default swaps linked to 50 companies with mostly high-yield credit ratings increased 20.5 basis points to 590.5. The Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings advanced 2.25 basis points to 116.25 basis points. The Markit iTraxx Financial Index linked to senior debt of 25 banks and insurers rose 13 basis points to 203 and the subordinated index jumped 14.5 to 326.5, BNP Paribas data show.
• S&P’s Kraemer Says Italy Risks Are Main Focus for Policy Makers. Standard & Poor’s analyst Moritz Kraemer said Italy is the country most under scrutiny by policy makers as its financing needs are larger than the support available from Europe’s crisis-fighting resources. “The country that is most in the eye of the attention of policy makers has to be Italy,” Kraemer said at the Sovereign Debt Conference hosted by Bloomberg Link in Frankfurt today. That is “simply because of its very large financing requirements” which are, “with the current toolbox of safety nets that we have in Europe, beyond credible support."
• China Requires Lawyers to Swear Their Loyalty to Communist Party. China’s Ministry of Justice ordered lawyers who have just obtained or renewed a legal license to take an oath declaring their support for the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The ministry said lawyers are required to take such an oath within three months of receiving their certificates, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website yesterday. Lawyers are also ordered to “strive for the cause of socialism,” according to the oath. The move takes place amid a push by the party to maintain its control across different sections of society. The party needs to “resolutely oppose all erroneous political tendencies contrary to the party’s basic line,” Vice President Xi Jinping said in a March 1 speech.
• Crude Declines on Weak Global Manufacturing Data. Oil fell to a one-week low after manufacturing in the euro area and China contracted this month, signaling that fuel consumption may decline. Futures dropped as much as 2.6 percent as services and output slipped more than forecast in Europe, according to London-based Markit Economics. Crude oil for May delivery fell $2.34, or 2.2 percent, to $104.93 a barrel at 12:26 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract touched $104.50, the lowest level since March 15. Prices are 6.2 percent higher this year. Brent oil for May settlement declined $1.62, or 1.3 percent, to $122.58 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
• Copper Drops as China Manufacturing May Contract: Shanghai Mover. Copper declined to the lowest in almost two weeks after a preliminary report showed manufacturing in China, the biggest consumer, may contract for a fifth month, eroding demand prospects amid high local stockpiles. Three-month copper fell as much as 1.1 percent to $8,365.50 a metric ton, the lowest level since March 9, on the London Metal Exchange and traded at $8,379 by 3:58 p.m. Tokyo time. “With swelling stockpiles at bonded and exchange warehouses in China, the PMI data has confirmed a slowdown in the country’s economic growth,” said Chae Un Soo, a metals trader at Korea Exchange Bank (004940) Futures Co. in Seoul. Stockpiles tallied by the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed to 227,276 tons last week, almost four times as much as the beginning of December. Bonded warehouse inventories in Shanghai were at 530,000 tons last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Wall Street Journal:

• FedEx(FDX) Says Economy Isn't As Robust As It Hoped. FedEx says the U.S. and global economies aren't growing as strongly as expected. It expects a mild recession in Europe this year. That outlook on a conference call with analysts overshadowed a strong third quarter for the Memphis, Tenn., company. Online holiday sales helped FedEx more than double its profit in the three-month period ended in February. The world's second-largest package delivery company is predicting growth of 2.1 percent in the U.S., compared with a forecast of 2.5 percent growth by leading economists surveyed by The Associated Press. It dropped its forecast for global growth to 2.3 percent from 2.9 percent.
• March, April to Determine How Soon U.S. Hit Debt Ceiling. The U.S. government is projected to hit the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling sometime later this year, but how quickly we get there depends in large part on how things shape up in March and April.
  

MarketWatch:

• U.S. Jobless Claims Fall 5,000 to 348,000.

CNBC.com:

• 'Worst Still to Come' for Europe: Citi Economist. Despite high-profile measures such as the Greek debt deal and mass pumping of liquidity into the banking system, Europe’s problems have merely been delayed for another day, Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citi, told CNBC.

Business Insider:

• This Midwest Boomtown May Have Just Recorded The Lowest Unemployment Rate In American History. Williston sits on top of the monster oil deposits known as the Bakken shale.
• Members Of Al Qaeda Were Upset When Keith Olbermann Was Fired From MSNBC.
• Citi: We're At The End Of The Commodity Supercycle.
• Gasoline Use Goes Back to Collapsing. (graph) For the latest week, gasoline usage was 8.2% off of what it was the year before.

Zero Hedge:

• Home Prices Miss Large On 9th Consecutive Downward Revision. (graph)
• 12 Charts On China's Chagrin.
• HFT Has Disconnected Commodities From Fundamentals.
• 2 Charts On Why The LTRO Is A 'Real' Failure.
  

Seeking Alpha:

• A Chinese Hard Landing?

Reuters:

• Fed's Fisher Sees No Need for More Monetary Easing. The U.S. economy is in much better shape and does not need further help from the central bank, a top Federal Reserve official known for his hawkish policy views said on Thursday. Although growth is "slower than we would like," Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Fox Business Network, "it's gaining momentum." "We will not support further quantitative easing under these circumstances because there's a lot of money lying on the sidelines, lying fallow," he said according to a transcript provided by the network. "We don't need any more monetary morphine."
• U.S. Miners, Steel Shares Drop on China Slowdown. Shares in U.S. steelmakers and coal and metal miners dropped on Thursday on signs that industrial growth was slowing in China, a big consumer of metal and raw materials for its economic building.

Telegraph:

• Eurozone 'Poster Child' Ireland Slumps Back into Recession. Ireland tumbled back into recession at the end of last year, dousing political claims that the "Celtic Tiger" has benefited from its tough austerity programme.

MailOnline:

• Al-Qaeda Fanatic is Dead: Serial Killer Jumps Out Flat Window With All Guns Blazing in Dramatic End to 32-Hour Siege. (pics)