Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• Greece's Main Creditors Said to Be Unwilling to Allow Euro Exit. Greece’s major creditors are not ready to let the country drop out of the euro as long as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shows willingness to meet at least some key demands, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Chancellor Angela Merkel will go a long way to prevent a Greek exit from the single currency, though only so far, one of the people said. Every possibility is being considered in Berlin to pull Greece back from the brink and keep it in the 19-nation euro, the person said.

• Greek Bonds Suffer Worst Week Since Aftermath of Syriza Victory. Greek government bonds were set for their worst week since the aftermath of Syriza’s election victory as the nation remained locked in negotiations to secure funding and avoid a default. The yield on 10-year securities climbed to the highest since December 2012 this week, and Spanish and Italian bonds also dropped, as officials worked to reach an agreement before Greece faces payments of almost 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) next month. German 10-year yields dropped below 0.1 percent for the first time as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Wednesday that the institution’s 1.1 trillion-euro bond-buying program must be implemented in full to work.   

• Junk-Bond Risk Rises in Europe as Greek Default Concern Mounts. The cost of insuring high-yield corporate debt in Europe is set for the biggest weekly rise since December as Greece negotiates to avoid default. The Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of credit-default swaps on high-yield companies climbed 36 basis points this week to 279 basis points, the highest since Feb. 20, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Contracts insuring $10 million of Greek debt for five years signal an 79 percent probability of default, CMA data show.

• Euro Area’s Repo-Market Crunch Undercuts Draghi’s Insouciance. Mario Draghi’s soothing words on the perceived scarcity of euro-area bonds have done little to dispel concern that the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing is snarling up a key part of the debt market’s plumbing. A glance at the German repurchase market suggests the availability of bonds as collateral for loans is drying up, according to Subhrajit Banerjee, a fixed-income strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc in London. The risk is that this will start a chain-reaction that shrivels liquidity in the cash-bond market, he wrote in a research report on Thursday.

• China Futures Tumble on Trust Curbs, Expansion of Short Selling. Chinese stock-index futures tumbled after regulators clamped down on the use of shadow financing for equity purchases and increased the supply of shares available for short sellers. FTSE China A50 Index futures for April delivery fell 6 percent as of 10:47 a.m. in New York, while contracts on the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 3.3 percent. Regulators banned the margin-trading businesses of brokerages from using so-called umbrella trusts and allowed fund managers to lend shares to short sellers, statements on Friday showed. Investors have used umbrella trusts, which allow for more leverage than brokerage financing, to ramp up wagers on Chinese stocks after monetary stimulus sparked a world-beating rally in the nation’s benchmark equity gauge. The Shanghai Composite, which more than doubled in the past 12 months, trades for 21.1 times reported earnings, the highest since April 2010 and more than double last year’s low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is valued at 13.7 times.

• Russian Retail Sales Slump for Third Month as Wages Plummet. Russian retail sales slumped for a third month and real wages plunged the most since 1999, highlighting the discrepancy between improving markets and the plight of the consumer as the economy enters its first recession in six years. Wages adjusted for inflation fell 9.3 percent in March from a year earlier after an upwardly revised 7.4 percent drop a month earlier, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said in a statement Friday. Retail sales fell 8.7 percent, compared with a revised drop of 7.2 percent in February. The median estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg were for decreases of 10.3 percent and 8.6 percent.

• European Stocks Slide Most Since January Amid Greek Debt Concern. European stocks slid, posting the biggest retreat since they began rallying in January, as concern over Greek debt was exacerbated by declines in the U.S. and Asia. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 1.8 percent to 403.69 at the close of trading, completing the worst week of the year. The Greek ASE Index slid 3 percent, with the National Bank of Greece SA and Alpha Bank AE tumbling more than 7 percent, as the country struggles to win more aid to avoid a default. Germany’s DAX Index plunged 5.5 percent this week, the most since 2011. European stocks fell for a second day after reaching a fresh peak Wednesday, taking weekly losses to 2.2 percent.

CNBC: 

• Cashin says: Threefold reason for selloff. (video)

ZeroHedge: 

• "We're All Frogs In Boiling Water" Santelli Says After Lacy Hunt Warns "This Is Far From Over". (video)

• US Rig Count Drops For Record 19th Week In A Row. (graph)

• European Sovereigns Have Worst Week In 5 Years, Stocks Slump. (graph)

• Is May 9 The Grexit Date?

• BofA "Explains" Why Optimistic Economist Forecasts Have Been So Wrong In The Past 5 Years. (graph)

• Consumers Love Higher Gas Prices: UMich Confidence Rises To 2nd Highest In 8 Years. (graph)

• Chinese Stocks Are Still Crashing. (graph) Chinese stock futures are now down almost 7% - the 2nd biggest drop in 7 years.

• Global Futures Slide After Worldwide Bloomberg Outage, China Tumbles On Short Selling Boost.

• Grexit Lives As "Deluded" Forecasters Predict The Unpredictable.

• Core Inflation Jumps Most Since October Due To Rent, Healthcare Costs. (graph)

• Greek Bank "Quarantine" Abroad Sparks European Selloff. (graph)

Business Insider: 

• Wal-Mart(WMT) suddenly closed 5 stores and laid off thousands of workers and no one knows why.

• Wall Street's financial sausage maker is on and Japan is buying what's coming out.

Telegraph: 

• Looming Greek 'crunch' threatens fresh global crisis, warns Osborne. Chancellor says a miscalculation from either side could plunge Europe back into full-blown turmoil.