Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Mester, Williams Say Fed Could Lift Rates at Any FOMC Meeting. Two Federal Reserve officials, in the first comments by policy makers since their gathering earlier this week, said the central bank is ready to raise interest rates at any meeting as the economy picks up after a harsh winter. “All meetings are on the table” for the first rate rise in nine years, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told reporters Friday after a speech in Philadelphia. John Williams, who heads the San Francisco Fed, said officials would be making judgments at each gathering based on the latest economic data. 

• Iowa Sick Birds Prompts Governor to Declare State of Emergency. Another 1 million egg-laying hens in Iowa probably has succumbed to bird flu, deepening what is becoming the worst such outbreak in U.S. history and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Three more turkey farms also probably have highly pathogenic avian influenza. About a quarter of the laying hens in the state are confirmed positive for the virus or are presumed to have it, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said Friday at a press conference. The state is the top U.S. egg producer. 

• Buffett Says Minimum Wage Increase Isn’t Answer to Income Gulf. Billionaire Warren Buffett said the level of income inequality in the U.S. is “extraordinary” but that raising the minimum wage isn’t the best solution. “I don’t have anything against raising the minimum wage but I don’t think you can do it in a significant enough way without creating a lot of distortions,” Buffett, 84, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s chief executive officer, said Saturday at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Those distortions “would cost a whole lot of jobs,” Buffett said.

• Lowe’s(LOW) Pulls Chinese Flooring After Short Seller Critique. Lowe’s Cos., the second-largest home-improvement chain, pulled a brand of Chinese-made laminate flooring as it works to address a controversy over formaldehyde. The company will no longer offer the Tecsun line of flooring, spokeswoman Connie Bryant said. The products were only sold online, not in stores, she said. The company plans to do its own testing of the product and conduct an investigation.

Wall Street Journal:

• Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao: Live Blog.

ZeroHedge:

• CFTC Helps Deutsche Bank Avoid "Bad Actor" Tag.

• Brutal Honesty: This Is The Video About Racism They Don't Want You To See. (video)

• Well That Hasn't Happened Before - Exhibit 6. (graph)

• "Hedge!!" (graph)

• Dear CFTC, The Market Is Still Broken. (graph)

• "Too Big To Fail Is A License For Recklessness" America's Banking System Is A "Fragile House Of Cards".

• We Just Broke 2008's Record For The Fastest Economic Unraveling! (graph)

• 5 Things To Ponder: GDP - Love It Or List It. (graph)

• Auto Sales Drop, Miss For 5th Month In A Row; Worst Year-To-Date Performance Since 2009. (graph)

• The US Equity Bubble Depends On Corporate Buybacks; Here's The Proof.

• Presenting The Most Overvalued Housing Market In The World In One Chart.

• Markets Are Stirring: Complacency Meets Froth.

• Major U.S. Retailers Are Closing More Than 6,000 Stores.

• The High Cost Of Centrally Planning The Global Climate.

• Did A Tap On The Shoulder "Prevent" The US Economy From Sliding Into Recession?

Business Insider:

• Berkshire Hathaway(BRK/A) made $1.3 billion on financial weapons of mass destruction; earnings beat.

• This chart explains why investors have turned sour on LinkedIn(LNKD).

• Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey and Sheryl Sandberg's husband, dies suddenly.

• Rallies in Baltimore have spread to more than 20 US cities.

• American Pharoah wins in the 141st Kentucky Derby.

Washington Post:

• 7 killed in violence during anti-cartel operation in Mexico. At least seven people died as flames and gunfire erupted around the western Mexico state of Jalisco on Friday when a military operation targeting a violent drug cartel was launched at the start of a three-day holiday weekend. Suspected cartel members stopped buses and trucks to block key highways in the state capital of Guadalajara and other cities, snarling traffic on a day Mexicans took to the road in droves. Gunmen fired on a military helicopter, killing three soldiers and forcing it to make an emergency landing about 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Guadalajara. Ten soldiers and two federal police officers were injured and three soldiers remained missing, a defense ministry statement said.

Tasnim News Agency:

• No Place for Adventurism in Region: Iran’s Deputy FM. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian slammed Saudi-led military offensive against Yemen as an adventurous act, saying Tehran will not allow such measures to jeopardize its common security with Yemen.