- Fed to sit tight on rates at March meet, hint at hikes to come (Reuters)
- Election setback a ‘wake-up call’ for Merkel, media and politicians say (Reuters)
- Germany’s Merkel under renewed attack after populists’ poll success (FT)
- Temperatures Rise on Eve of Next GOP Contests (WSJ)
- Carl Icahn setting up son to take his place: sources (Post)
- Turkey Vows Swift Retaliation After Bomb Kills 37 in Capital (BBG)
- One of Ankara bombers was female PKK member: Turkish security sources (Reuters)
- ECB’s Cheap Loans Highlight Rift Among Europe’s Banks (WSJ)
- Pimco May Have to Face Gross’s Suit After Stormy Exit (BBG)
- Trump’s Long Trail of Litigation (WSJ)
- Putin’s $50 Billion Oil Cache Gives Russia Luxury to Ignore ECB (BBG)
- Obama’s prisoner clemency plan faltering as cases pile up (Reuters)
- Inflation Target Draws Fire From All Sides
- Russia ready to cooperate with U.S.-led coalition in fight for Syria’s Raqqa (Reuters)
- Goldman revamps electronic stock trading to catch rival (Reuters)
- Maryland police officer slain in ambush, two suspects arrested (Reuters)
- Apollo Global Management to Acquire Fresh Market (WSJ)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital said it parted ways with long-time partner Michael Goguen in the wake of allegations he sexually abused a woman and failed to follow through on a $40 million settlement. (http://on.wsj.com/24Zeqlj)
– Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co, having backed away from a key portion of the cloud computing-on-demand market, is expanding into cloud services to help companies analyze data such as photos, audio clips and comments on social media. (http://on.wsj.com/1M1n7p1)
– A television reporter and cameraman with the Australian Broadcasting Corp were briefly detained in Malaysia after attempting to interview Prime Minister Najib Razak while he campaigned ahead of a coming state election in the Borneo state of Sarawak. (http://on.wsj.com/24ZccTa)
– Blackstone Group LP is selling a portfolio of U.S. luxury hotels to the Chinese owner of New York’s Waldorf Astoria, just months after buying it for $4 billion. (http://on.wsj.com/24Zcauv)
– Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp is betting on an e-commerce boom in India to help offset slowing sales at home. (http://on.wsj.com/24ZcdGL)
– A powerful car bomb hit a bustling business district in central Ankara Sunday night, killing at least 34 people and wounding 125 others, and showing the threats Turkey faces in its fight with Kurdish separatists and Islamic State militants based in neighboring Syria. (http://on.wsj.com/24ZdQEg)
– Bristol-Myers Squibb Co has sprinted to an early lead in the race to sell a class of cancer treatment by bucking the trend toward precision medicine and sticking to the mass-marketing approach in selling its drug, Opdivo. (http://on.wsj.com/1M1ounv)
FT
* China’s Anbang Insurance Group has agreed to acquire Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc for around $6.5 billion, a few months after private equity firm Blackstone Group LP took the company private.
* UK’s Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Labour MP Gisela Stuart have been tasked to head the Vote Leave campaign, a campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.
* British finance minister George Osborne will announce further cuts to publ
NYT
– Democrats in the Senate said they would introduce two bills on Monday to give Puerto Rico broad powers to shed some of its $72 billion of bonds while also giving its public workers’ pensions priority over the bonds. (http://nyti.ms/22ex8De)
– U.S. Federal Reserve officials will gather in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday to debate whether a bumpy start to the year is now in the past, clearing the way for higher interest rates. (http://nyti.ms/1M1oJPx)
– Blackstone Group LP has agreed to sell Strategic Hotels and Resorts to Anbang Insurance Group, in a deal valued at $6.5 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to comment. (http://nyti.ms/1M1oTGN)
– CBS’s decision to expand the announcement of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament field to a two-hour program backfired on Sunday when the full field was leaked and circulated online early in the show. (http://nyti.ms/1M1pSqu)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** More than two years after U.S. authorities began investigating Kinross Gold Corp for alleged corruption in Africa, the case remains unresolved, but details of the company’s financial activities are starting to leak out.(http://bit.ly/1ppaxGs)
** Brazil’s political crisis deepened on Sunday when opposition parties seized the occasion of nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations to push for a change in power. An estimated 1.8 million people took to the streets in peaceful protests across the country, demanding the resignation of President Dilma Rousseff.(http://bit.ly/1poNcEK)
** The federal government is fond of boasting about how its controls on weapons exports are among the strongest in the world, but Canadians are left largely in the dark over precisely what military and security equipment is being shipped to foreign customers – including those with poor human-rights records.(http://bit.ly/1ppaUkn)
NATIONAL POST
** The sudden resignation of longtime Royal Bank of Canada director Joao Pedro Reinhard, who faces a drug-related charge, should mitigate “reputational contagion” at Canada’s largest bank, corporate governance experts say.(http://bit.ly/1RgIll1)
** As the Bank of Canada hunts down a candidate to become the first Canadian woman on a banknote, numismatists are pointing out that there’s already been one. Princess Patricia, who died in 1974, was the wildly popular daughter of a Canadian Governor General whose portrait was chosen to grace a patriotic $1 note issued in the midst of the First World War. (http://bit.ly/1P7TDAz)
Britain
The Times
* The chief executive of Tesco, Dave Lewis, has warned that the retail sector could come under intolerable pressure unless George Osborne pledges to reform business rates. (http://thetim.es/1Ur9m4p)
* French President Francois Hollande has demanded that EDF press ahead with an 18 billion pound ($25.88 billion) reactor in Britain despite growing misgivings at home over the project.(http://thetim.es/1Ur9II6)
The Guardian
* British retail tycoon Philip Green could be asked to give up 280 mln pounds to save 13,000 British Home Stores staff from having their pensions cut. (http://bit.ly/1Ur7LM0)
* Advertising company WPP will reveal this week that its chief executive, Sir Martin Sorrell, has been handed shares worth 60 million pounds. (http://bit.ly/1Ur7VTp)
The Telegraph
* Be Heard, the new advertising group founded by former Aegis chief executive Peter Scott, is close to announcing the 20 million-pound takeover of the website and apps design agency MMT Digital. (http://bit.ly/1Ur86hK)
* Lombok, the upmarket furniture chain known for its Eastern-inspired dark teak beds and tables, is being put up for sale by the private equity buyer which rescued the retailer from near-collapse seven years ago. (http://bit.ly/1Ur8f4O)
Sky News
* Broadcasters and actors who use a loophole to avoid paying their fair share of income tax are to be targeted in next week’s Budget. (http://bit.ly/1Ur8TPM)
* EDF ‘s chairman Jean-Bernard Levy has said he is “confident” that the 18 billion-pound Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will go ahead and it has the support of both the French and British governments. (http://bit.ly/1Ur965s)
The Independent
* The regulator of the Office for National Statistics needs its own IMF-style agency to police the quality of the ONS’s output, according to a government-commissioned report by Sir Charles Bean. (http://ind.pn/1Ur8wog)
* British finance minister George Osborne is being pressed to exempt more small businesses from paying business rates before Wednesday’s Budget. (http://ind.pn/1Ur8MDP)
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/22fjrnv Tyler Durden