- U.S. readies bank rule on shell companies amid ‘Panama Papers’ fury (Reuters)
- Co-Founder of Mossack Fonseca Defends Law Firm at Center of ‘Panama Papers’ (WSJ)
- Fed’s Cautious Approach on April Rate Hike Raises Stakes for June (BBG)
- Dollar sinks again after Fed remains cautious (Reuters)
- New Tax Rules on Inversion Deals Are Met With Protest (WSJ)
- Fed Chairs Since 1979 Offer Peek Into Central-Bank Philosophy (BBG)
- Election stirs debate about Fed’s handling of political pressure (Reuters)
- Yen Strengthens Toward 108 as Traders Deaf to Japan’s Jawboning (BBG)
- While Draghi and Yellen Jawbone, Swiss Central Bankers Play It Old School (WSJ)
- Clinton, Sanders turn spiky ahead of New York primary (Reuters)
- Panama Papers Tie More of China’s Elite to Secret Accounts (NYT)
- Unbound States Prove Precious in GOP Contest (WSJ)
- Mega deals morph into mega problems for Wall Street (Reuters)
- Republican Party’s Low Polls Give Obama an Edge in Court Fight (BBG)
- VW labour bosses clash with brand chief Diess over cuts (Reuters)
- There’s a $2 Trillion GDP Boost in Shrinking the U.S. Gender Gap (BBG)
- China asking for terror suspects list ahead of G20 summit (Reuters)
- The World Is Getting Fatter and No One Knows How to Stop It (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– The new Treasury Department rules – the third such attempt to rein in a spate of so-called tax-inversion deals – drew swift condemnation from Allergan Chief Executive Brent Saunders, who criticized them as “un-American” and “capricious.” (http://on.wsj.com/1RFrGG0)
– A fight among labor unions over who would control a proposed $50 million super PAC has slowed the creation of a unified effort to boost the chances of labor-friendly Democrats winning the White House and control of Congress in the November election. (http://on.wsj.com/1SdU26l)
– Federal Reserve officials signaled an interest-rate increase in April is unlikely, minutes of their March policy meeting showed, confirming markets’ growing conviction that the central bank will move cautiously until the global economy picks up steam. (http://on.wsj.com/1SRxhs5)
– A federal judge sentenced former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship to 12 months in prison, closing another chapter on the deadliest U.S. coal mining accident in more than four decades. (http://on.wsj.com/1SRxnzP)
– The Justice Department on Wednesday filed an antitrust lawsuit challenging Halliburton Co’s planned acquisition of rival Baker Hughes Inc, alleging that the deal would threaten higher prices and reduce innovation in the oil field services industry. (http://on.wsj.com/1S3UxpC)
FT
David Cameron intervened in 2013 to weaken an EU drive to reveal the beneficiaries of trusts, creating a possible loophole that other European countries warned could be exploited. (http://on.ft.com/1UXsZTD)
High consumer confidence and the availability of cheap finance has pushed British car sales to the highest level this century. (http://on.ft.com/1UXtflJ)
HSBC is launching a new investment advice service for customers to bridge Britain’s huge advice gap. (http://on.ft.com/1UXtXiX)
NYT
– Donald Blankenship, whose leadership of the Massey Energy Company catapulted him from a working-class West Virginia childhood into a life as one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Appalachia, was sentenced on Wednesday to a year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards. (http://nyti.ms/1RFepNQ)
– Governor Alejandro Padilla of Puerto Rico signed a bill that would allow him to declare a state of emergency and give him authority to halt payments on the island’s crushing $72 billion debt. (http://nyti.ms/1SRvWl3)
– As Yahoo Inc asks potential bidders to submit first-round offers for its core business next week, it is also warning them about a troubling decline in revenue and profit, while obscuring the costs and cash flow of various business units. (http://nyti.ms/1TCU1OM)
– Reddit has in recent months started to address online abuse, and on Wednesday it took one of its bigger steps toward helping individuals gain some control over tormentors. The company said it would give people a blocking feature to shield themselves against harassment on the site. (http://nyti.ms/1N8XhL3)
– An owner of three Volkswagen AG dealerships filed a lawsuit against the carmaker over its rigged diesel vehicles, seeking compensation for lost sales suffered by more than 600 dealers in the United States. (http://nyti.ms/1oDP0bM)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Bombardier Inc confirmed it has not received the first of two $500 million payments from Quebec for its C Series airliner program as the two sides work to finalize an investment deal announced last October and wait on word from Ottawa as to whether it will join them as a partner. (http://bit.ly/1RZnhwL)
** TransCanada Corp said on Wednesday it would take longer than originally thought to get the Keystone pipeline – which delivers crude from Alberta to Oklahoma, and to Illinois – running again after it was shut down over the weekend due to what the company described as a small leak in South Dakota. (http://bit.ly/1SS8zaV)
** The Liberal government’s first budget is less transparent than Conservative budgets under Stephen Harper and overestimates the number of jobs that will be created, Ottawa’s non-partisan fiscal watchdog says. (http://bit.ly/1VzHL1z)
NATIONAL POST
** The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is laying out $2.5 billion for a 40 per cent stake in Glencore Plc’s unit, Glencore Agricultural Products, a move intended to accelerate the fund’s four-year-old strategy of making long-term investments in the agriculture business. (http://bit.ly/1RZo5Sk)
Britain
The Times
Britain’s landlords were protected from the worst of the recession by escalating rents that have left tenants increasingly impoverished, analysis by the Office for National Statistics shows. (http://bit.ly/23cMbRP)
A director of the oil company Petrofac ordered “confidential payments” worth $2 million to help to secure an oil contract in Kuwait, according to documents seen by The Times. (http://bit.ly/1TCRjsx)
The Guardian
The UK has recorded its biggest monthly car sales in almost 20 years, with more than 500,000 new vehicles registered in March. (http://bit.ly/1RNXqWe)
Swedish hardware chain Clas Ohlson, which began trading in the UK eight years ago, is to close more than half its UK stores, putting dozens of jobs at risk. (http://bit.ly/208jtfD)
The Telegraph
Hutchison, the owner of mobile operator Three, has signed deals worth 3 billion pound to guarantee space on its expanded mobile network as it makes its final appeal to officials in Brussels to allow its controversial takeover of O2. (http://bit.ly/23iAy8t)
The Federal Reserve is preparing to raise U.S. interest rates yet again, despite the financial turmoil that gripped global markets after the central bank increased its rates last December.(http://bit.ly/1SBfwKX)
Sky News
Pfizer and Botox-maker Allergan have halted their record $160 billion merger citing new U.S. Treasury rules to make controversial so-called “tax inversions” less lucrative. (http://bit.ly/1MSPmqq)
BP faces a bruising rebellion led by top City investors next week over a near 14 million pound pay deal handed to its chief executive in a year when the company saw its profits wiped out by the slump in oil prices. (http://bit.ly/22d4UXJ)
The Independent
Barclays has become the first big UK bank to back social payment app Circle, a US digital payment company which uses bitcoin to transfer central bank currencies across popular messaging platforms and other media, as it launched in the UK on Wednesday.(http://ind.pn/1UVExXA)
Half a million British workers could lose out on hundreds of pounds a year under a “stealth tax” coming in on Wednesday which was not announced in George Osborne’s Budget. (http://ind.pn/1REnh6g)
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1Sf4r1I Tyler Durden