- Iran Negotiators Reach Outline Nuclear Deal After Marathon Talks. Iran and world powers said they reached an outline accord that keeps them on track to end a decade-long nuclear dispute, allowing three more months to resolve differences that couldn’t be bridged in the past week’s diplomatic marathon. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter that solutions to the nuclear issue had been found and the process of drafting an accord can begin. Germany’s Foreign Ministry also said on Twitter that a framework solution has been reached.
- Dijsselbloem Says ‘Still Long Way’ to Go on Greek Proposals. Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said there’s a “long way to go” to strike a deal on Greece’s aid proposals even after the Athens government responded to demands for more detail on its bid to end the deadlock. “It’s continuously improving,” Dijsselbloem told reporters today in the Hague. “They deliver more and more proposals that are more and more detailed. On some parts, we will definitely reach an agreement.”
- Sanctions-Strapped Russia Outguns the U.S. in Information War. Moscow drowns out Voice of America, and facts are a casualty. The troubled U.S. agency responsible for delivering news around the world is being outgunned in Eastern Europe by Russian outlets unrestrained by notions of fact-based journalism. The unequal competition raises fears among U.S. officials that Moscow is winning the information war about events in Ukraine, even as the Russian economy staggers under economic sanctions imposed after the takeover of Crimea. “Russia has engaged in a rather remarkable period of the most overt and extensive propaganda exercise that I’ve seen since the very height of the Cold War,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate subcommittee in late February. It’s “spending hugely on this vast propaganda machine,” he told another panel the same day, and it’s succeeding “because there’s nothing countering it.”
- Japan bubble alert found in drug stock rally that won't quit. This year's Japanese stock rally has a surprise leader: pharmaceutical companies, which tend to lag behind the market when it gains. Drugmakers soared 22 percent, the most among the 33 industry groups on the benchmark Topix index, compared with a 10 percent gain for the Topix itself. The Topix Pharmaceutical Index climbed to its highest on record on March 24, and earnings multiples are about twice the market average. The Topix has beaten pharmaceutical shares in 12 of the past 17 years it rose. "Valuations are ridiculous, and foreign investors are scratching their heads," said Richard Whittall, a fund manager at Alltus Capital (U.K.) in Singapore who's watched Japanese stocks for 25 years. "You've seen these underowned areas of the market just go up, up and up. Japanese institutions like buying these stocks. They feel safe."
- European Stocks Retreat, Paring Weekly Advance as Miners Decline. European stocks slipped, paring a weekly gain, as miners and energy companies retreated. A gauge of commodity producers posted the biggest decline of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index as Societe Generale SA said iron ore prices may extend losses. BHP Billiton Ltd. slid 2.6 percent. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA contributed the most to a drop in energy stocks, as oil prices fell. The Stoxx 600 declined 0.2 percent to 397.8 at the close of trading, paring its weekly gain to 0.6 percent.
- Iron Ore Seen Extending Slump Below $50 as BHP, Rio Decline. (video) Iron ore, which fell below $50 a metric ton on Wednesday, may extend losses as weakening producer currencies cut mining costs, reducing incentives for the supply cuts needed to balance the market, according to Societe Generale SA. Lower energy prices have lessened freight expenses and the inability of many high-cost Chinese miners to cut output means that iron ore will stay weak, Mark Keenan, Singapore-based head of commodities research for Asia, said on Thursday. The steel-making raw material will probably drop into the low $40s a ton in the coming weeks, IG Markets Ltd. said in an e-mailed note.
- Industrial Stocks Near Trend Break as Low U.S. Rates End Rallies. (graph) An exchange-traded fund of industrial stocks is nearing a technical support level as interest rates fall, signaling the ETF’s underperformance could continue. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund has lagged behind the SPDR Standard & Poor’s 500 ETF by 3 percentage points since Nov. 25 as this stock price ratio has decreased each month this year. During the same time, the yield on 10-year Treasuries has fallen to 1.86 percent from 2.26 percent -- see chart.
- KKR-Backed Energy Hedge Fund Said to Triple Loss Amid Audit. BlackGold Capital Management, the energy-focused hedge fund partly owned by KKR & Co., told investors that losses amid the oil slump in December were almost triple its initial report after an auditor examined how it valued debt holdings, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The $2 billion investment firm revised the loss to 17 percent last month from the 6 percent decline it previously reported, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The Houston-based fund cited difficulty in valuing some energy bonds at the height of the market’s turmoil, they said.
- Thanks to Obama, the New World of Campaign Finance Is Unlimited and Undisclosed. Potential presidential candidates this year–including Bush–are using outside groups to pay for traditional functions of an early campaign or political committee, including communications, policy development, and research. Unlike a presidential campaign or the committees that politicians are supposed to use while they consider running for the White House, these groups have no legal limits on contributions, which worries watchdogs.
- Iran Nuclear Talks: Streaming Coverage.
Fox News:
- More than 70 dead in Al-Shabaab attack on Kenyan college, as Christians reportedly held hostage. (video) More than 70 people have been killed in an attack Thursday by Al Qaeda-linked terror group Al-Shabaab on a Kenyan college, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said. Al-Shabaab says they are "holding many Christians alive" after claiming responsibility for the attack at Garissa University that left dozens more injured and hundreds of students unaccounted for.
- Two women arrested in alleged terrorist bomb plot targeting New York. (video) Two women suspected of being terrorist sympathizers were arrested Thursday for allegedly plotting to detonate pressure cooker bombs in New York, Fox News has learned. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the arrests, but circumstances surrounding the arrests or the alleged plot were not immediately clear. NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller said the arrests were part of a local and federal investigation.
- Initial Claims Slide Again; Trade Deficit Lowest Since 2009 Despite Soaring Dollar On Imports Plunge. (graph)
- Dear Texas, Welcome To The Recession. (graph)
- Crude oil is tumbling. (graph)
- Emerging markets: The great unravelling. Developing economies are suffering their biggest capital outflows since the financial crisis.
- Greek defiance mounts as Alexis Tsipras turns to Russia and China. Alexis Tspiras is playing an escalating game of brinkmanship, trying to force Europe to give ground or risk a chain-reaction that could cripple the EU.
- Eurozone growth forecasts are too optimistic, ECB officials warn. As the European Central Bank has revised up its forecasts for growth and inflation, some members of its governing council have warned that its assessment may be too optimistic.
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