Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• Schaeuble Says Slovenia Right on No Aid Needed as Yields Rise. Slovenia is right to say it doesn’t need a bailout, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said as the country’s benchmark bond declined. “The Slovenian government says it can do it without the rescue umbrella, it doesn’t want a program and I think they are right,” Schaeuble told reporters in Brussels today before a meeting of finance ministers from the 17-member euro bloc. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chief of euro group and the Dutch finance minister, said Slovenia’s Finance Minister Uros Cufer will brief them on the nation’s overhaul plan and the European Commission will give its assessment later this month.
• Europe Eases Corporate Tax Dodge as Worker Burdens Rise.   
• European Stocks Decline From 2008 High; Commerzbank Sinks. Commerzbank AG sank the most in two months after Handelsblatt reported the lender will sell new shares this week. Standard Chartered Plc dropped to a four-month low as Carson Block, the short seller who runs Muddy Waters LLC, said he’s betting against the bank’s debt. Air France-KLM Group fell 4 percent. Lonmin Plc rallied 2.6 percent after the platinum producer returned to profit in the fiscal first half.
• China’s Investment Slows as Production Trails Estimates. China’s fixed-asset investment unexpectedly decelerated last month while industrial output trailed estimates, adding to concerns that the economy will fail to show much of a recovery this quarter. Fixed-asset investment excluding rural households in the first four months of the year increased 20.6 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing, compared with 20.9 percent in the first quarter. Production grew 9.3 percent in April from a year earlier and retail sales climbed 12.8 percent, according to the agency. 
• China April Home Sales Fall 13% as Property Curbs Take Toll.
• Crude Drops a Third Day as China Reduces Demand. West Texas Intermediate oil fell for a third day as China’s crude processing reached the lowest level in eight months in April and OPEC boosted output. Prices dropped as much as 1.6 percent as refining in China decreased to 9.36 million barrels a day, according to data published today on the website of the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics. Output in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose last month to the highest level in five months. “High supplies and weak demand are never a bullish signal,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. “People were hoping China would absorb some of the surplus. Now it looks like the surplus is going to get bigger, especially since OPEC is producing more.” WTI for June delivery fell $1.25, or 1.3 percent, to $94.79 a barrel at 11:17 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Grain-Carrier Ship Rates Slide a 14th Day as Demand Seen Slowing. Rates for Panamax ships that carry grains and minerals fell for a 14th day amid speculation that demand to transport Latin American crop cargoes is slowing. Day rates for the 750-foot-long ships that haul about 75,000 metric tons slid 0.1 percent to $7,923, staying at the lowest since Feb. 28, according to the Baltic Exchange in London, which publishes prices on more than 50 maritime routes. They’ve fallen every day since April 22, the longest streak of consecutive declines since February. The Baltic Dry Index, a wider measure of commodity shipping costs, fell 0.6 percent to 879 points, the lowest since May 3, according to the exchange.
• Your Future Will Be Manufactured on a 3D Printer.
• Monsanto(MON) Wins Seed Case as High Court Backs Patent Rights. The U.S. Supreme Court bolstered Monsanto Co.'s ability to control the use of its genetically modified seeds, ruling that companies can block efforts to circumvent patents on self-replicating technologies.
  

Wall Street Journal:  

• Health Officials Detail Payment Cuts for Uninsured. The Obama administration on Monday published a plan for cuts in payments for hospitals that treat many uninsured patients and said states that decline to expand their Medicaid programs under the 2010 health law won't get preferential treatment at first.

Fox News:

• IRS scrutiny went beyond Tea Party, targeting of conservative groups broader than thought. An IRS campaign to apply additional scrutiny to conservative groups went beyond targeting "Tea Party" and "patriot" groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas. The additional guidelines created by the agency were part of a timeline, obtained by Fox News, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is looking into the controversial IRS practice. IRS officials apologized Friday for the scrutiny, but new information suggests senior leaders were apprised of the effort as early as 2011 despite public denials from the top. 
• Obama calls Benghazi controversy a 'sideshow'. The president addressed the issue during a press conference alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is visiting Washington. Obama denied any suggestion that there was a cover-up, questioning recent reports that showed a State Department official trying to water down the administration's initial story-line on what happened the night of Sept. 11. "There's no there there," Obama said. The president, further, reiterated prior arguments that he called the attack terrorism from the start, dismissing claims that the administration intentionally downplayed that element. But Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called Obama's latest comments "revisionist history." "The president can't have it both ways," Issa told Fox News.

CNBC: 

• Investors Borrow Cash From Portfolios at Record Pace. Emboldened by soaring stock prices and record-low borrowing costs, stock investors are taking out loans against their portfolios at the fastest pace since before the Great Recession hit. So-called margin debt hit $379.5 billion in March, the highest level since July 2007 when such debt hit an all-time record of $381.4 billion, according to the most recent data available compiled by the New York Stock Exchange. 
• Get Ready for Huge Drug Cost Gap in Obamacare. Cancer patients could face high costs for medications under President Barack Obama's health care law, industry analysts and advocates warn. Where you live could make a huge difference in what you'll pay.

Zero Hedge: 

• Retail Sales Post Modest Beat Despite Ongoing Plunge In Gasoline Sales. (graphs)
• Ron Paul: What No One Wants to Hear About Benghazi.
• Chinese Power Consumption Collapses: Economic Growth Slowest Since Early 2009. (graph)
• Is A Fed 'Taper' Positive For Treasuries?
• Detroit May Run Out Of Cash Next Month.

Business Insider: 

• Police Release Video Of Suspect In New Orleans Shooting. (video)
• INFOGRAPHIC: The Threats That Literally Surround Facebook(FB).
• REPORT: Saudi Arabian Traveler Arrested After Customs Agents Find Pressure Cooker In His Luggage.
• North Korea Releases Another Wild Statement As US Carrier Hits Korean Waters.
• 'Middle Eastern' Hackers Attempt To Hijack Functions Of US Energy Companies.
• CHART OF THE DAY: The Outlook For Earnings Just Keeps Getting Worse.
• BofA: 92% Of Investors Are Expecting A Great Summer, And 'No One Is Worried' About Rising Rates.
• A Complete Look At China's Latest Disappointing Data In One Chart.

ValueWalk.com:

• Hedge Fund Nasdaq Bets Just Shy of 2010 Peak: BAML.

Reuters: 

• EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks fall on China data.
• EURO GOVT-Italian yields rise as investors take profit.
• Spain, Portugal push for full banking union as Germany finds hurdles.Spain and Portugal called on Monday for the euro zone to complete a banking union as Germany underscored legal hurdles before a central element of the plan to deal with failing banks can be introduced.

Telegraph: 

• France preparing tax on Apple(AAPL) and Google(GOOG) to fund culture. President Francois Hollande is preparing to impose new taxes on technology giants like Apple and Google to finance cultural projects such as art, films and music.