- Headline of the day: Oil prices fall as investors’ faith in rally wanes (Reuters)
- Europe shares, dollar gain as investors look to Yellen (Reuters)
- Chinese Bidder for Starwood Has Mysterious Ownership Structure (WSJ)
- Germany wants refugees to integrate or lose residency rights (Reuters)
- BlackRock Joins Pimco Warning Investors to Seek Inflation Hedge (BBG)
- Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns: A Financial-Crisis Mystery Is Solved (WSJ)
- Contract Workforce Outpaces Growth in Silicon-Valley Style ‘Gig’ Jobs (WSJ)
- Hugh Hendry has a friend: China Bull Who Beat 99% of All Bond Funds Says Yuan Drop Is Over (BBG)
- Obama says journalists partly to blame for tone of presidential race (Reuters)
- Newt Gingrich: Wives spat is Trump’s ‘wake-up call’ (Politico)
- Europe’s Higher-Yielding Bonds Benefit as ECB Prepares QE Boost (BBG)
- Brazil party set to abandon Rousseff, making impeachment more likely (Reuters)
- Under the Hood of Japan’s Jobs Data: Part-Timers on Low Pay (BBG)
- Filed Your Taxes? Good. (Or Is It?) (BBG)
- For banks, ECB policy experiment opens north-south divide (Reuters)
- Once-Secret Pentagon Agency Asks Industry to Help Find New Ideas (BBG)
- Lenders ‘Freaking Out’ Over London Luxury Home Woes (BBG)
- Japan public divided as laws easing limits on military take effect (Reuters)
- Banker Accused of $25 Million Fraud Arose From a Gilded Legacy (BBG)
- Fed’s Williams Sees Gradual Hikes as U.S. Economy Stays on Track (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– The U.S. government said Monday it had cracked a terrorist’s iPhone without Apple Inc’s help and is seeking to drop its legal case to force the tech giant to unlock the device. (http://on.wsj.com/1RCcaK2)
– Prosecutors charged former Blackstone Group LP executive Andrew Caspersen, most recently an executive at Park Hill, with stealing $25 million from investors and scheming to defraud investors of $70 million more.(http://on.wsj.com/1UqsfGc)
– Low-fare startup Virgin America Inc may soon have a new owner. Takeover offers from two other U.S. airlines – JetBlue Airways Corp and Alaska Air Group Inc – are due by the end of the week, according to a person familiar with the matter, in what could signal the latest wave of consolidation in the industry. (http://on.wsj.com/1UrgAqw)
– A study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai showed that results for cholesterol tests done by Theranos Inc differed enough from the two largest laboratory companies in the U.S. that they could throw off doctors’ medical decisions. (http://on.wsj.com/1UxKrxU)
– Yahoo Inc has given potential suitors two weeks to submit preliminary bids for its core Web business and Asian assets, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/1VQGCDh)
FT
*I Squared Capital is buying Irish energy firm Viridian Group Plc in a transaction worth 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion), to gain entry as a contender into the dynamic UK energy market.(http://bit.ly/1XZerQZ)
*Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, a supporter of the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, will say in a speech that young people should speak out in favour of the EU and convince their elders against Britain’s exit. (http://bit.ly/1VQDg2R)
*The FBI has abandoned its bid to force access Apple Inc’s to help it break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone after it found a way to access the device’s data without the company’s help. (http://bit.ly/1XZdvvU)
*The Ministry of Defence on Monday awarded contracts of service to BAE Systems Plc, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc and Babcock International Group Plc worth 372 million pounds to maintain and upgrade the Hawk jets used by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. (http://bit.ly/1VQDoPV)
NYT
– The Justice Department said on Monday that it had found a way to unlock an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the tech company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation. (http://nyti.ms/25t5IvW)
– A federal judge in San Juan on Monday threw out a new tax that Puerto Rico had tried to impose on the American retailing giant Walmart, calling it unlawful. (http://nyti.ms/1UytSBU)
– On Monday, federal prosecutors charged Andrew Caspersen, a Wall Street executive, in a criminal complaint with securities and wire fraud in what they called a “brazen” scheme to defraud investors – including a foundation affiliated with a major New York hedge fund – of up to $95 million. (http://nyti.ms/1LVPyot)
– Pandora Media replaced Chief Executive Brian McAndrews with Tim Westergren, a co-founder of Pandora and its former chief strategy officer. (http://nyti.ms/25tvmkp)
– Dell has agreed to sell its Perot Systems subsidiary, which provides information technology services to hospitals and governments, to the Japanese technology company NTT Data for almost $3.1 billion. (http://nyti.ms/1qcJVIQ)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Gareth Joyce, president of Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc, has resigned after less than three months on the job. (http://bit.ly/1pHazsM)
** Canadian Craigslist rival VarageSale’s Chief executive, Carl Mercier, said on Monday that he was promoting Andrew Sider to CEO, while he would take on the job of chief product officer. (http://bit.ly/1pHb4CY)
** Sick days are costing Ontario school boards C$1 billion ($758.90 million) a year, according to a report by School Boards’ Co-operative Inc. (http://bit.ly/1pHbjho)
NATIONAL POST
** Canadian miner Columbus Gold Corp launched a proxy fight against Eastmain Resources Inc on Monday. (http://bit.ly/1pHbNEn)
** In his zeal to investigate reports of rampant harassment in the workplace, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson was formally accused of being a bully. The 2012 allegation prompted the then public safety minister Steven Blaney to probe Paulson’s conduct and force the commissioner to apologize for exercising “bad judgment.” (http://bit.ly/1UStrlq)
Britain
The Times
– ConocoPhillips is drawing up plans to shut down one of the North Sea’s biggest gas pipeline systems in a move that threatens to knock out 10 percent of the UK’s gas capacity and a string of active fields. (http://thetim.es/1Si9DlE)
– A multimillion-pound Revenue & Customs publicity campaign to stamp out tax evasion and avoidance used an advertising agency ultimately controlled in an offshore haven. HMRC spent more than 6 million pounds($8.55 million)on the campaigns, including 300,000 pounds specifically on offshore evasion. (http://thetim.es/1SiaSRG)
The Guardian
– The cost of a first class stamp will rise to 64p this week, taking the price increase to 100 percent over the past decade. First class stamp prices are rising by 1p, while a second class stamp will rise by the same amount to 55p. (http://bit.ly/1Si9wX9)
– Britain’s manufacturers are struggling to recruit skilled workers and keep pace with global technology, according to business group EEF’s report that criticises the government for lack of support. (http://bit.ly/1SiaIdg)
The Telegraph
– CEO of the takeover target Premier Foods Plc, Gavin Darby, has claimed a rival bidder could challenge its American suitor McCormick, as he defended the company’s heavily criticised decision to reject a 60p per share offer. (http://bit.ly/1Si9Mpd)
– More than 9000 jobs in Port Talbot hang in the balance as crunch talks begin at Tata Steel Ltd in India over the Welsh site’s future. Fears are rife among workers that the Indian multinational may pull the plug on the loss-making plant. (http://bit.ly/1Siai6x)
Sky News
– Notonthehighstreet, an online marketplace, has been approached by a number of new investors about injecting funds into the business to allow it to accelerate its expansion. (http://bit.ly/1Si9m22)
The Independent
– UK think tank Smith Institute, found that two-thirds of employees say they are working longer than two years ago, but only 10 percent believe they are more productive. A quarter of staff believed their productivity had declined over the period. (http://ind.pn/1Si9QW3)
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1REfq7v Tyler Durden