Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Italy Fights Spain for Investors as ECB Boost Fades: Euro Credit. Competition between Italy and Spain for international investors’ funds will heat up this quarter as domestic buying stoked by the European Central Bank fades. Italian and Spanish bonds slumped last week after demand dropped at a Spanish bond sale and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said his country is in “extreme difficulty.” The decline reversed a first-quarter rally sparked by more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of ECB loans to the region’s banks via its longer-term refinancing operation. Spain’s 10-year yield spread to German bunds widened to the most in four months, while Italy’s reached a six-week high. “Spain and Italy are coming back down to earth after an incredible first quarter,” said Luca Jellinek, head of European interest-rate strategy at Credit Agricole SA in London. “The LTRO bought some time, but not a massive amount of time. Now the second quarter will be harder than the first unless policy moves convince foreign investors to come back in.” Italian 10-year bonds fell for a fourth week, with the yield advancing 40 basis points to 5.51 percent. The yield difference over bunds widened to 378 basis points, compared with an average of 381 basis points in the first quarter. Spain’s 10- year yield spread to Germany reached 410 basis points last week after averaging 333 basis points in the first three months.
• Oil Falls on Sluggish U.S. Employment Growth. Futures fell as much as 2.4 percent after the government reported on April 6 that the U.S. created 120,000 jobs in March, below the median forecast of 205,000 in a Bloomberg survey. Crude for May delivery fell $1.33, or 1.3 percent, to $101.98 at 1:50 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract touched $100.81, the lowest level since Feb. 15. Prices have climbed 3.2 percent this year. Brent oil for May settlement dropped $1.14, or 0.9 percent, to $122.29 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Wall Street Journal:

• Copper Down 2% On US Jobs Data, China Inflation. Copper futures slid 2% Monday as metals traders had their first chance to react to Friday's weaker-than-expected U.S. employment report and after data showed China's inflation picked up last month. The most actively traded contract, for May delivery, was recently down 7.55 cents, or 2%, at $3.7200 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Facebook(FB) to Buy Instagram For $1 Billion. Facebook Inc. said it is acquiring the popular photo-sharing app maker Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock in what is the social network's biggest acquisition to date.

CNBC.com:

• Rising Optimism in Housing Doesn't Compute.

Business Insider:

• A Longtime American Ally Is Now Aligning Itself With Iran.

Zero Hedge:

• "Spain Is Not X"... And Why That Is Actually A Bad Thing.

ABC:

• Spain has room to raise revenue through increasing the value added tax if such a step is needed to comply with its commitments to cut its budget deficit, citing a member of the government. Prime Minister Rajoy is determined to do all that's necessary for Spain to meet its deficit-cutting commitment agreed with Brussels, citing the official.