- Ukraine’s East Unravels as IMF Warns on Financing. Ukraine’s easternmost regions are slipping from the government’s grasp as separatists take over more official buildings, with the International Monetary Fund warning extra financing may be needed if control of the industrial heartland is lost. Armed men stormed the Donetsk regional prosecutors’ office today, throwing stones and stun grenades. Pro-Russian rebels in nearby Slovyansk said they’d begun talks to swap international monitors abducted last week, the Interfax news service said. Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov signed a decree backed by lawmakers last month to reinstate a military draft, his office said on its website.
- Japan’s Worst Auto Sales in 16 Months Show Hangover Beginning. Call it Japan’s Great Hangover. Vehicle deliveries last month in Asia’s second-largest auto market fell to the lowest since December 2012 after Japan raised its consumption tax for the first time 17 years, according to industry figures released yesterday. In the run-up to the levy being increased 3 percentage points to 8 percent on April 1, sales had surged for seven straight months.
- Xi Vows to Combat Terrorism After Blast Kills 3 in Xinjiang. President Xi Jinping vowed to combat “violence and terrorism” after three people were killed in an explosion and knife attack in the capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region hours after he visited the city, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. “Knife-wielding mobs” slashed travelers and set off explosives at the Urumqi’s south train station at about 7:10 p.m. local time yesterday, Xinhua said, citing the publicity department of the ruling Communist Party’s regional committee. The attack injured 79 people, four seriously, it reported.
- Australian Asset Sales, Cuts to Welfare Urged to Lower Debt. Australia should privatize its rail and postal assets and cut family welfare payments as Prime Minister Tony Abbott seeks to meet election pledges to rein in record public debt, a report ordered by his government advised.
- WTI Oil Drops to Six-Week Low on Ample Crude Supply. WTI for June delivery dropped 40 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $99.34 a barrel at 2:05 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
- Junk Loans Pulled as Buyers Say No After Fed Raises Concern. The tide is turning in the market for speculative-grade loans as investors refuse to buy some deals deemed too risky. Rocket Software Inc. pulled $725 million of loans from the market this week that would have refinanced debt and paid for a dividend to its co-founders and private-equity firm Court Square Capital Partners LP, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The deal is at least the third to be withdrawn in the last month, with cable TV provider WideOpenWest Finance LLC canceling $1.97 billion in loans and Dutch LLC, which does business as women’s apparel company Joie, scrapping a $200 million debt offering. The loan market is starting to show signs of tightening more than six months after the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sent letters to banks telling them to improve their deteriorating underwriting standards. Investors are demanding better terms and pulled cash from leveraged-loan funds the last two weeks, snapping an unprecedented 95 straight weeks of inflows.
- Liquidity Trap Hitting AAA Bonds Has ATP CEO Sounding Alarm. Carsten Stendevad, chief executive officer of Denmark’s biggest pension fund, says some of the world’s biggest bond markets are becoming dangerously illiquid. Overseeing $130 billion in assets, the 41-year-old former Citigroup Inc. (C) banker is urging policy makers to take seriously evidence that even the safest assets are getting harder to offload amid tighter regulatory requirements. He says ATP struggled to find buyers for about 7 billion euros ($9.7 billion) in German government bonds at the end of last year. “It was amazing,” Stendevad said in an interview in his office north of Copenhagen. “One of the world’s biggest banks, which before 2008 would have been able to trade any quantity of German government bonds at any time of day, was not even willing to offer a quote for a reasonable size.” Stendevad says his biggest concern now is that regulatory intervention will distort the markets he relies on to manage pension savings.
- Pfizer(PFE) Planning to Raise AstraZeneca Bid Above $106 Billion. Pfizer Inc. is preparing to sweeten its bid for AstraZeneca Plc to more than 63 billion pounds ($106 billion) in an attempt to lure the U.K.’s second-biggest drugmaker to the negotiating table, people with knowledge of the matter said.
- Putin Tells Ukraine to Withdraw Troops as Pro-Russian Protests Turn Violent. Seizure of New Building in Key Eastern City Results in Clashes With Police.
CNBC:
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Financial Times:
- Ukraine PM warns of ‘most dangerous 10 days’. Ukraine’s interim prime minister said on Thursday his country was entering its “most dangerous 10 days” since independence in 1991 and was struggling to counter pro-Russian separatists on the verge of taking over the industrialised eastern heartland.
- Speculative fever is back to 2008, with compound interest. We are in a colossal bubble once again. It is worse than 2008 on many indicators, though the epicentre of risk is ever more concentrated in sovereign debt, especially the debt of those countries without a central bank (you all know who I mean). Unless you have a solution for all these problems – and you don’t – you have to pick your poison: perma-slump and mass unemployment, or perma-bubbles, champagne, and crossed-fingers, until a Black Swan comes along and eliminates the spare capacity.
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