Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Euro-Area Debt Levels Surge to Record, Led by Greece. Government debt in the euro area surged to the highest levels since the introduction of the single currency, underscoring the challenges still confronting the 19-nation bloc as it wrestles with Greece over new aid payments. Greece’s debt pile swelled to a new high of 177.1 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2014, up from 175 percent a year earlier, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. For the euro zone as a whole, government debt rose to a record 91.9 percent of GDP last year from 90.9 percent in 2013. Italy’s debt mountain increased and remained as the second-highest in the euro area after Greece, going up to 132.1 percent of GDP in 2014 from 128.5 percent the previous year. Portugal, in third place, saw its debt rise to 130.2 percent of GDP from 129.7 percent, while in Ireland, next in line, debt fell to 109.7 percent from 123.2 percent. Both countries received international bailouts at the height of the euro crisis. The data also show that some euro-area countries are struggling to reduce their budget deficits to within the EU’s 3 percent of GDP limit. France, the region’s second-biggest economy, posted a deficit of 4 percent in 2014, down from 4.1 percent. Cyprus had the widest deficit, at 8.8 percent of GDP while Spain recorded a deficit of 5.8 percent, narrowing from 6.8 percent the year before. Greece posted a deficit of 3.5 percent.
• El-Erian: Greece Can’t Default and Remain in Euro Zone. (video)
• ECB Is Studying Curbs on Greek Bank Support. (video) The European Central Bank is studying measures to rein in emergency funding for Greek banks as resistance to further aiding the country’s stricken lenders grows among policy makers, people with knowledge of the discussions said.
• Ukraine Pushes for UN Peacekeepers as Rockets Disrupt Truce. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko renewed his efforts to invite international peacekeepers to the country’s east, where foreign observers reported rocket fire among recurring cease-fire violations. Poroshenko and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon agreed by phone on further steps for the possible deployment of a peacekeeping contingent under the UN’s aegis, according to Poroshenko’s website. Russian-backed separatists used mortars and tanks, killing one soldier, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday. The rebels in turn accused the government of preparing to escalate the conflict in the Donbas region in the east of the country, DAN news service reported.
• German Investor Sentiment Falls on Shaky Economic Outlook. German investor confidence unexpectedly fell for the first time in six months, signaling that the uncertainty induced by Greece’s debt crisis may be weighing on Europe’s largest economy. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, fell to 53.3 in April from 54.8 in March. Economists had forecast an increase to 55.3, according to the median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. 
• U.K. Trader Accused of Manipulation Tied to 2010 Flash Crash. A U.K. futures trader contributed to the May 2010 flash crash by engaging in illegal bait-and-switch practices, according to U.S. authorities. The trader, 37-year-old Navinder Singh Sarao, was arrested in the U.K. Tuesday, and the U.S. is seeking his extradition, the Justice Department said in a statement. Sarao of Hounslow, U.K., who ran his own trading shop, was charged with wire and commodities fraud in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Illinois.
• European Stocks Advance as SAP, Actelion Results Beat Forecasts. European stocks climbed as companies including SAP SE and Actelion Ltd. posted better-than-forecast results. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.6 percent to 409.12 at the close of trading.
• Fink Says Central Bankers ‘Destroying’ Insurers With Low Rates. Low interest rate policies by central banks around the world are threatening insurance companies and pension funds, said Laurence D. Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager. “As we live in a world of persistent low rates and, in the case of Europe, negative rates today, when you put a macro-prudential framework on it, we are destroying the value of pension funds,” Fink said at a conference in Singapore on Tuesday. “We are destroying the viability of insurance companies.”
• March U.S. Job Losses Widespread, Led by Slump in Energy. Payrolls dropped in 31 U.S. states in March, led by a slump in energy producers such as Texas and Oklahoma. The unemployment rate fell in 23. Payrolls in Texas decreased by 25,400, its first decline since September 2010 and the biggest since August 2009, figures from the Labor Department showed Tuesday in Washington. Oklahoma followed with 12,900 fewer jobs and employment in Pennsylvania fell by 12,700.
• Goldman Sachs Buys $21 Million Stake in HFT Network Company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has bought a $20.5 million stake in Perseus, a technology company that provides high-frequency trading firms with the networks they need to do business. “The investment by Goldman Sachs is an important accelerator of our business,” Perseus Chief Executive Officer Jock Percy said in a statement on Tuesday.
• Teva(TEVA) Makes $40 Billion Unsolicited Takeover Bid for Mylan(MYL). (video)
  Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. made an unsolicited offer to buy Mylan NV for about $40.1 billion, in the drug industry’s largest takeover attempt this year.
• Harley-Davidson(HOG) Falls After Cutting Annual Shipment Forecast. Harley-Davidson Inc., the biggest U.S. motorcycle maker, fell the most in more than two years after trimming its annual shipment outlook because the company doesn’t plan to match competitors’ steep discounts.

ZeroHedge: 

• Full Scapegoat Retard: Trader Arrested For 2010 Flash Crash. 
• Baker Hughes Cuts 17% Of Workforce As Oil Slump Ripples Through Economy. (graph)
• Bill Gross Says Bunds "Short Of A Lifetime", As Mario Draghi Is About To Run Out Of Bunds To Buy. (graph)
• White House Refutes European Complacency: Warns Grexit Threatens Global Economic Recovery. 
• European Banks Are Paid To Borrow For First Time Ever As Euribor Goes Negative. (graph)

Business Insider:

• The Pentagon now says Iranian warships were a 'factor' in a major US naval deployment near Yemen.

NY Times:

• A Veteran of the Financial Crisis Tells China to Be Wary. (video) About 340 pages into Henry M. Paulson’s new book on China, a sentence comes almost out of nowhere that stops readers in their tracks. “Frankly, it’s not a question of if, but when, China’s financial system,” he writes, “will face a reckoning and have to contend with a wave of credit losses and debt restructurings.”

MNI:

• Rosengren Says Fed May Have to 'Experiment' with Liftoff. Fed will have to be ready to make "technical adjustments" when time comes to raise interest rates, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said in an interview. Wile IOER is Fed's "primary tool" for pushing up fed funds, other money market rates, and overnight reverse repurchase facility the back-up, Fed may also have to use term RRPs as part of process.

Telegraph:

• Russia remains defiant as EU sanctions and oil price fall paralyse economy. Russian economy contracts by 2pc in first quarter, as prime minister Dmitry Medvedev admits his country faces "array of challenges" but says annexation of Crimea represents country's "Berlin Wall" moment.