Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:   

• Flareup in East Ukraine Fighting Sets Stage for Talks in Berlin. Fighting intensified in eastern Ukraine before the country’s foreign minister meets his counterparts from Russia, Germany and France for talks in Berlin on Monday. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and six wounded during the past 24 hours, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a presidential military spokesman in Kiev, told reporters on Monday. The number of rebels wounded in the clashes has tripled to an average of 15 a day in the last week, the separatist news website DAN reported, citing the acting director of a trauma center in Donetsk.
• Greek Talks With EU Are ‘Very Complicated’: Dombrovskis. (video)
• European Stocks Extend Record With Spanish Shares at 5-Year High. European stocks advanced for a fifth day, with Spanish equities jumping to their highest levels since January 2010. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent to 413.63 at the close of trading in London, after rising as much as 0.3 percent.
• Budget Deficit in U.S. Widens as Spending Exceeds Record Revenue. The budget deficit in the U.S. widened over the first six months of fiscal 2015 as spending on Social Security and health services increased, a government report showed. Spending exceeded revenue by $439.5 billion from October through March, compared with a $413.3 billion deficit in the same period the prior year, Treasury Department figures released Monday showed. The shortfall in March was bigger than economists projected.

Fox News:

• Rubio announces his 2016 GOP presidential campaign. (video) Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Monday that he is running for president and feels “uniquely qualified” to talk about the future. Rubio, a Republican, is scheduled to make a full-scale announcement later today in Miami at an event before hundreds of supporters and that will include a video message. The first-term senator has long been assembling his political team, including donors who helped previous presidential nominees collect tens of millions of dollars. Now, Rubio's campaign kickoff formalizes what has been unfolding for months.
• Why Marco Rubio has a real shot at 2016 Republican nomination.

ZeroHedge:

• "We Have Come To The End Of The Road" - Greece Prepares For Default, FT Reports.
• The Best And Worst Performing Hedge Funds In 2015. (table)
• She's Back!!
• The "Crude" Reality Of Oil Storage Capacity In Six Easy Charts. (graph)
• Russia Warns "Attempts At Isolation Are Counterproductive & Useless".
• Citi Writes Iron Ore Price Obituary. (graph)
• This Is What Happens When The US Treasury Market Is Taken Hostage By "Malfunctioning Algos". (graph)
• Proxy War Escalates: Russia Lifts Ban On Selling Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Iran.
• Wall Street Reacts To China's Shocking Trade Data.
• USDJPY Tumbles After Abe Advisor Says Yen At 105 "Appropriate". (graph)

Business Insider:

• STAN DRUCKENMILLER: The only way to win the hedge fund game is by being a 'pig'.
• Hackers are coming for your smartwatch.
• OPEC: Some of you non-OPEC oil producers are being stubborn.
• The latest sign of the craziness going on in the Chinese stock market.
• The Fed could be about to make the same mistake it did before the financial crisis. The longer the Fed does nothing, the more Silvia worries that we may be repeating the mistakes of the past. By repeating these mistakes, Silvia sees potential for us to once again head towards a major event in credit markets that, while not large enough to cause a global financial crisis, could, in Silvia's view, majorly upset what have become fairly sanguine markets in the last several years. Silvia writes:
• Russia and Iran begin massive oil-for-goods deal.

Telegraph: 

• How German government debt just got dangerous. "Poisonous cocktail" of events could see investors burnt by holding ultra-safe German government debt. 
• General election chaos could trigger 'Lehman moment' for pound. Experts warn that pound could fall to as low as $1.35 against the dollar over the coming weeks, as traders brace themselves for "messy outcome" after May's general election. 

Xinhua:

• China's Rail-Freight Volume Dropped 9% Y/Y in 1Q. Railways moved 870m mt of cargo in Jan.-March period, citing China Railway Corp.