Bloomberg:
- Lew to Push Growth Amid Contagion Concerns in First Europe Visit. Lew arrives April 8 for a two-day visit to meet with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici in Paris and European Union officials in Brussels. He returns to Washington the evening before President Barack Obama sends his overdue fiscal 2014 budget to Congress on April 10. “Lew’s trip to Europe comes at a critical juncture for the U.S. economy,” said Prasad, a former International Monetary Fund official. “A flare-up of the euro zone debt crisis could create turmoil in global financial markets and set back the fragile U.S. recovery.”
- Draghi's Whatever It Takes Limited to More of Same: Euro Credit. The ECB president said yesterday policy makers "stand ready to act" to bolster the flagging economy. While they discussed lower interest rates and more long-term bank loans, they failed to reach a consensus, according to three euro-area officials familiar with the talks. The Governing Council didn't consider a plan to boost company lending because it isn't ready, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
- Hollande Dismisses Reshuffle as Political Crisis Hits Popularity. French President Francois Hollande, in the midst of the worst political crisis since entering office in May, dismissed speculation of a cabinet reshuffle after a minister he’d charged with fighting tax evasion admitted to a secret overseas bank account. “It’s not the government that failed, but a man,” Hollande said yesterday at a press conference in Rabat during a state visit to Morocco. “There’s no decision on the government to be taken.”
- Merkel Losing Allies in $700 Billion Shift to Renewable Energy. Chancellor Angela Merkel is losing support from her two biggest allies in the utilities industry as their mounting debt prompts a retreat from renewable-power expansion, undermining her $700 billion program to reshape Germany’s energy market.
- Europe to Shut 10 Refineries as Profits Tumble. Oil refiners in Europe will shut 10 percent of their plants this decade as fuel demand falls to a 19-year low. Of the region’s 104 facilities, 10 will shut permanently by 2020 from France to Italy to the Czech Republic, a Bloomberg survey of six European refinery executives showed. Oil consumption is headed for a fifth year of declines to the lowest level since 1994, the International Energy Agency estimates. Two-thirds of European refineries lost money in 2011, according to Essar Energy Plc (ESSR), owner of the U.K.’s second-largest plant.
- China Consumer Sector 'Deteriorating'; BNP Paribas. No signs of recovery as overall consumption growth slower than expected; consumer staples likely to outperform as inventors stick with defensives in an uncertain Chinese economy, analyst Charlie Y. Chen wrote.
- Chinese Airline Shares Fall on Bird Flu Concern. China Southern Airlines Co. (1055), the country’s biggest domestic carrier, and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. led a decline in shares of Asian airlines on concern the widening bird flu infections may crimp travel. China Southern plunged as much as 15 percent, the most since September 2001, while Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest airline, dropped the most in almost 11 months. Shares in Air China Ltd. (601111), China Eastern Airlines Corp., Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) and Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) also declined.
- Kospi Drops Most in 4 Months on North Korea Threats. The won slid to a six-month low as the risk of conflict with North Korea spurred capital outflows and monetary easing in Japan fanned speculation South Korea will seek to prevent appreciation that puts exports at risk.
- Yen Drops to Weakest Since August 2009 on BOJ Stimulus Plans. The yen fell to its weakest since August 2009 as investors speculated the Bank of Japan (8301)’s 7 trillion yen ($72 billion) of monthly bond purchases will devalue the currency.
- Platinum to Slump as Europe Car Sales Tumble: Chart of the Day. Platinum prices that tumbled to the lowest since August may extend declines as a drop in European vehicle sales crimps demand for the metal used in catalytic converters, according to INTL FCStone. Total sales of cars and light trucks in Europe have slipped for five straight months through February. Platinum prices may fall 7.8% to $1,400 an ounce this year as consumption wanes, according to Edward Meir, an analyst at FCStone.
- Copper Poised for Third Weekly Decline Amid Rising Stockpiles. Copper traded near an eight-month low, poised for a third weekly drop, on concern that growth is slowing in China, the biggest user, and as global inventories continued to climb. Metal for delivery in three months fell 0.2 percent to $7,428.50 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 11:03 a.m. in Seoul. Prices are down 1.5 percent this week and yesterday touched the lowest since Aug. 3. Futures for May delivery were little changed at $3.3555 a pound on the Comex in New York. Markets in China are closed today for a national holiday. Inventories tracked by the LME rose for a 34th session to 579,175 tons, daily exchange figures showed. That’s the most metal since October 2003.
- Crude Set for Biggest Weekly Drop Since October on Supply Gains. Oil in New York traded near a two- week low and headed for its biggest weekly drop since October after U.S. inventories climbed to a 22-year high, raising concern that slower economic growth may weaken fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed, poised for a 4 percent loss since the close on March 28, the most since the week ended Oct. 26.
- SGX to Introduce Iron Ore Futures as Investors Wager on China. SGX AsiaClear, the world’s largest clearer of iron ore swaps, is scheduled to start a futures contract for the steel-making commodity next week as investors seek to bet on the pace of Chinese growth and swings in prices. The Singapore-based clearing house, a unit of Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX), will offer the contracts from April 8 alongside the swaps, according to a statement on its website. One futures contract will be 100 metric tons compared with 500 tons for the swaps, the website shows.
- Bombs Hit Damascus Like Shooting Stars as Battle Intensifies. Syrian businessman Ammar Sinan was having dinner at a Damascus restaurant last week when mortar rounds fired by rebel insurgents fell “like shooting stars” a few streets away. “There were bombs, then the sound of sirens and then the whoosh of the Katyusha launchers responding to the source of fire,” Sinan said in an interview in Beirut. “Damascus is a dying city. You see it breaking up and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. Damascus had escaped the worst of the violence that has ripped through other big cities until a few months ago, when rebels intensified their attacks on its suburbs. In February, the insurgents declared an “epic” battle to “liberate” the capital and stepped up their offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s troops. “It’s a political battle of great significance,” said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East Center in Beirut. “Whoever wins Damascus can claim authority over Syria.”
- Freeh Says Corzine’s Risky Strategy Helped Fell MF Global. Former MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon S. Corzine’s risky business strategies and mismanagement helped accelerate the futures brokerage’s demise, according to a report by bankruptcy trustee Louis Freeh. The 124-page report blames Corzine and his management team for bungling an expansion of the company’s traditional business model while ignoring deficiencies in its risk controls. Corzine’s “aggressive trading strategy” that invested heavily in European sovereign debt produced no significant revenue, and he and Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp knew that the company’s controls were flawed as early as May 2010, according to the filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
- Foreign Firms Brace for More Pressure in China. Recent troubles in China for Apple Inc. and Volkswagen AG represent a growing risk for global companies, as their dependence on the booming Chinese economy leaves them exposed to Beijing's shifting winds. In some cases, foreign companies are coming under withering attacks from state-run media. In others, they are running afoul of Chinese regulators or government policies, such as an anticorruption campaign that limits ostentatious gifts. On Monday, Apple apologized for its Chinese customer-service policies and said it would revamp them following more than two weeks of criticism from government-run media. It isn't clear whether the spotlight will hurt Apple in what has become the tech giant's No. 2 market after the U.S.
- F5 Networks(FFIV) Drops 16%: Cuts FYQ2 View on North American Slowing. Shares of networking equipment vendor F5 Networks (FFIV) were halted this afternoon in late trading just before the company warned fiscal Q2 revenue and earnings per share will come in well below consensus owing to a slowdown in North American sales, and some slowing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, especially among telecom and federal government buyers. The stock is now down $14.64, or almost 17%, at $75.78. Said CEO John McAdam: From a market perspective, Telco bookings were down sharply on both a sequential and year-over-year basis. U.S. Federal sales were also down significantly from the second quarter a year ago.
- North Korea's missile launchers on the move, indicating possible new provocation. North Korea has begun moving its mid-range missile launchers, possibly indicating a looming test as tensions are already boiling on the peninsula, U.S. officials told Fox News. Earlier Thursday, South Korea said North Korea moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast after an unnamed spokesman for the North Korean army warned the U.S. Wednesday that its military has been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons.
- BRICS countries take their turn at bat: Andy Xie. Emerging nations take a swing without cheap liquidity from the West. The bursting of the BRICS bubble is the main source of instability in 2013. Because interest rates are low everywhere, this bursting is happening in slow motion, confusing financial markets. As the months pass, the picture will become clear. The global economy is likely to be dragged into recession again.
- China’s austerity call bites some restaurants. A government campaign to cut the spending of public funds on banquets for officials is having an impact on several upscale restaurant chains.
- Soros to CNBC: What Japan Is Doing Is 'Quite Dangerous'. (video) The policy measures taken in Japan to revive economic growth are "quite dangerous," billionaire investor George Soros told CNBC in an interview on Friday. Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a concerted drive to kick start the world's third largest economy, which has been hampered by two decades of deflation. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan unveiled a slew of radical steps to boost inflation, sparking huge gains in the Nikkei stock index and sending the yen to three-and-a-half year lows against the dollar on Friday.
- Economy Has No 'Real Lift,’ Says Wilbur Ross. A lumbering U.S. economy is not growing fast enough to create jobs, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Thursday. "I think the economy is going to continue to lumber ahead," he said in a "Closing Bell" interview. "There's not real lift. There's not real top-line growth and top-line growth is what makes jobs."
- Japan's Debt Crisis Visualized. (video)
IBD:
Washington Post:- Bird flu death toll rises to six in China, CDC says. The death toll from a new strain of bird flu rose to six in China on Thursday as scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and around the world stepped up efforts to determine its pandemic risk. There is no evidence that the H7N9 bird flu strain is transmitted from human to human, officials said. At least 14 people in China have been confirmed to have H7N9, all in the eastern part of the country. According to the World Health Organization, three of the most recent fatal cases involved men: a 38-year-old from Zhejiang province, in eastern China, who became sick March 7; a 64-year-old, also from Zhejiang, who became ill March 28; and a 48-year-old from Shanghai who also became sick March 28.
- Obama rekindles talk about boys club after comment about California attorney general. President Obama reopened the debate Thursday over whether his administration is too influenced by men after praising the looks of Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general and a possible future gubernatorial candidate. “You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said at a party fundraiser in Atherton, Calif., a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. “She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”
- U.S. Fed balance sheet grows to record size in latest week. The U.S. Federal Reserve's balance sheet expanded to a record size on an increase in the central bank's holdings of U.S. government debt, Fed data released on Thursday showed. The Fed's balance sheet, a broad gauge of its lending to the financial system, stood at $3.198 trillion on April 3, compared with $3.185 trillion on March 27.
- Yellen latest to hint about slowing of QE3. The US Federal Reserve could adjust the pace of asset purchases to send a signal about its intentions, vice-chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday, as she became the latest senior official to hint at a slowing of QE3.
- French Confidence in Hollande Falls Below 30%. CSA polls finds President Francois Hollande is least popular president since establishment of Fifth Republic.
- Japan Considers Shooting Down North Korea Missile. North Korea recently transported a missile to its eastern coast, possibly for training and test-firing.
- Beijing's municipal government summoned some of the city's developers for private discussions about the local real estate market in a move to further rein in prices in the Chinese capital, citing people familiar with the situation.
- None of note
- Asian equity indices are -1.75% to +.5% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 121.50 -.5 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 97.25 -1.25 basis points.
- FTSE-100 futures -.07%.
- S&P 500 futures -.19%.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.17%.
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- None of note
8:30 am EST
- The Trade Deficit for February is estimated at -$44.6B versus -$44.4B in January.
- The Change in Non-farm Payrolls for March is estimated at 190K versus 236K in February.
- The Unemployment Rate for March is estimated at 7.7% versus 7.7% in February.
- Average Hourly Earnings for March are estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.2% gain in February.
- Consumer Credit for February is estimated to fall to $15.0B versus $16.151B in January.
- None of note
- The Eurozone retail sales report, German Factory Orders report and the Canadian Unemployment report could also impact trading today.
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