Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• Banker in Jail Suggests Spain Is Calling Lenders to Account.
• Cypriot Bailout Program Faces ‘Unusually High’ Risks, IMF Says. Cyprus may need additional financing if its economy contracts more than expected or there are slippages in implementing the terms of its bailout program with the euro area and International Monetary Fund, IMF staff said. The impact of Cyprus’s banking crisis on gross domestic product and on the country’s fiscal consolidation is “highly uncertain,” the Washington-based institution said in a staff report today. This means risks to the outlook are “substantial and tilted to the downside” as problems would adversely affect the trajectory of Cyprus’s public debt. 
• Italian Government Suspends Unpopular Property Tax Payment. The Italian Cabinet agreed today to suspend the payment of a residential property tax due in June, an unpopular levy adopted by former Prime Minister Mario Monti to help reduce the country’s budget deficit. The administration led by Premier Enrico Letta pledged to review the tax by Aug. 31. It also approved additional funding of 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for workers in a temporary layoff program known as CIG.
• Russian GDP Growth at 1.6% as Economy Weakest Since 2009. Russia’s economy grew at the weakest pace since 2009 in the first quarter as the euro area’s longest recession hurt demand for commodity exports and investment at companies including OAO Gazprom cooled. Gross domestic product rose 1.6 percent from a year earlier, slowing for a fifth consecutive quarter, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said today in an e-mailed statement. That compares with a median estimate of 1.2 percent in a Bloomberg survey of 23 economists and a 2.1 percent pace in the final three months of 2012. The Economy Ministry estimated first-quarter growth at 1.1 percent.
• Dollar Index Reaches Highest Since 2010 on Fed; Aussie Slides. The Dollar Index climbed to the highest level in almost three years amid speculation the Federal Reserve is moving closer to ending its program of asset purchases on signs U.S. economic growth is improving. The greenback rose versus all of its 16 most-traded peers as U.S. leading indicators improved and consumer confidence rose to the highest in almost six years. The American currency climbed past 103 yen for the first time since October 2008. The Australian and New Zealand dollars slid on concern slowing global inflation will damp demand for commodities.
• Oil Price-Fixing Probe Widens as Neste Helps EU Inquiry. The European oil price-fixing probe expanded as Neste Oil Oyj (NES1V), Finland’s only refiner, said it was asked to provide information regarding potential manipulation of global crude and biofuel markets. The widening investigation comes as Pannonia Ethanol, a Hungarian biofuel producer, said it lodged a complaint with the European Commission last year after data-pricing company Platts denied requests to contribute to its price-setting process. Meanwhile, Statoil ASA (STL), one of the European oil companies that has been ensnared in the investigation, said it has “zero tolerance” for breaches of rules.
• Gold Heads for Longest Slump in Four Years on Fed, Dollar. Gold fell, heading for the longest slump in four years, as the dollar jumped to a 34-month high and a Federal Reserve policy maker said that U.S. monetary stimulus may be reduced within months.

Wall Street Journal: 

• GOP Lawmakers Criticize IRS as Hearing Opens. House Republicans on Friday probed for political motivations behind the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, saying lawmakers had been lied to and that there had been additional violations at the agency. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.), saying the revelations so far were "just the tip of the iceberg," asked who started targeting conservative groups, who knew about the practice, why it went on for so long and why the IRS wasn't forthcoming when lawmakers asked whether conservatives were being targeted. 

CNBC: 

• Italian Government 'History' as 'Virus' Spreads: Grillo. Traditional parties that make up Italy's coalition government will become history in less than four months, Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment "Five Star Movement" told CNBC, likening the support for his movement to a fast-spreading "virus."  
• How to Tell If the IRS Is Eyeing You. You consider yourself a law abiding citizen, and you are not starting a nonprofit organization with conservative ties.

Zero Hedge:

• The Ugly Truth Behind Spain's First Trade Surplus In Over 40 Years. (graph)
• Chinese Profitability Squeezed Further By Third Year Of Double-Digit Wage Gains. (graph)
• Michigan Confidence Soars To Highest Since 2007, Biggest Beat Of Expectations On Record. (graph)
• Charting Irrational Credit Bubble Exuberance Euphoria.

Business Insider:

• It's Time To Discuss The Secret CIA Operation At The Heart Of The Benghazi Scandal.
• The Riskiest Places In The World [MAP].
• Here's The Top Stock Held By Each Of The 50 Biggest Hedge Funds.
• Woman At The Center Of The IRS Scandal Is Now In Charge Of Implementing Obamacare.
• Rupert Murdoch Says Facebook(FFB) Is Starting To Implode, Just Like 'Crappy MySpace' Did.

Reuters:

• Fitch cuts Slovenia as bailout worries continue.
• Fitch throws CMBS hand grenade ahead of SEC meeting. Fitch shook up the US securitization market this week when, on the eve of a long-awaited US SEC public roundtable on credit rating industry reform, it issued an unsolicited comment lambasting the Triple A ratings given by two of its rivals to a new single-asset commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) linked to a trophy Manhattan office building. 
• TABLE-U.S. March factory orders revised to -4.9 pct.

USA Today:

• Benghazi e-mails unleash flood of questions.
• Obamacare: 3 years in, it faces steep challenges. Poll: Accept The Law or Try to Change It?

Handelsblatt:

• Germany Against ECB Idea to Put ABS Risk on EU. "EU-budget guarantees to safeguard ECB measures is a renewed attempt to create a liability union by stealth," Michael Meister, deputy caucus leader for Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc in parliament, said. "The best protection for the ECB is simply to abstain from buying corporate bonds," Meister said. Meister called for a swift end to an "unnecessary discussion". SPD lawmaker Carsten Schneider also warned against burdening EIB saying plan risks turning the institution into "bad bank of Europe".

Manager Magazin:

• Germany's Rich Withdraw Money From Banks. Many family offices have no confidence in financial system stability, euro, and withdraw money from banks, money mkt funds, bonds, Yvonne Brueckner of Family Office Panel said.