- Italian Bank Stocks are Surging on the Back of Rescue Reports (WSJ)
- European Stocks Rise Led by Italian Banks; Emerging Markets Gain (BBG)
- Oil price dips on prospects for producers’ meeting (Reuters)
- U.S. shale oil firms feel credit squeeze as banks grow cautious (Reuters)
- U.S. banks’ dismal first quarter may spell trouble for 2016 (Reuters)
- Miserable Year for Banks: Stocks Suffer as Rates Stay Low (WSJ)
- Whipsawed Wall Street Traders Find Bullish Signal in Bad Profits (BBG)
- Sales of Short-Term Health Policies Surge (WSJ)
- Panama Furor Rumbles Into Week Two as Global Pressure Mounts (BBG)
- Daily Mail parent in talks with private equity for Yahoo bid (Reuters)
- As Puerto Rico Nears Record Default, Insured Investors Rest Easy (BBG)
- Wall Street Wages Double in 25 Years as Everyone Else’s Languish (BBG)
- U.S. Navy officer charged with spying, possibly for China, Taiwan (reuters)
- The Invisible Money Makers Who Thrived During 2015’s Oil Slump (BBG)
- Audio recording reveals Brussels Attacks were coordinated from Syria (RTBE)
- Tale of Two Chinas Is Emerging as Economy Slows, Fidelity Says (BBG)
- China internet regulator says web censorship not a trade barrier (Reuters)
- Kerry says Hiroshima ‘gut-wrenching’ reminder world should abandon nuclear weapons (Reuters)… just not the US
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– The UK’s Daily Mail has emerged as a suitor for Yahoo Inc’s assets, joining a wide group of interested companies that includes telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc as an April 18 deadline for preliminary offers nears, according to people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/1XpCSXL)
– Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Sunday he would resign from his post, opening the way for the formation of a new government and the potential for urgently needed reforms to be passed in parliament. (http://on.wsj.com/25SUmBC)
– The Brussels suicide attacks that killed 32 people were the result of a last-minute scramble by terrorists after the capture of a comrade days earlier persuaded them to ditch plans for a fresh strike in France, Belgian prosecutors said. (http://on.wsj.com/1VJsKKp)
– UK Prime Minister David Cameron faced further questions about his financial affairs on Sunday, including a cash gift from his mother, despite taking the unprecedented step of publishing information about his income tax for the past six years following a week of scrutiny sparked by the Panama leaks. (http://on.wsj.com/1N2C0rx)
– TransCanada Corp said its Keystone oil pipeline resumed pumping Sunday after a nearly week-long shutdown due to a leak discovered in South Dakota. The Canadian company said it has completed repairs to the leak, which caused a spill of about 400 barrels, or 16,800 gallons near the company’s Freeman pump station in Hutchinson County. (http://on.wsj.com/20tHPkl)
FT
Prime Minister David Cameron will promise to create a new criminal offence for companies that fail to stop their staff assisting in tax evasion. (http://on.ft.com/25TznyJ)
Ukraine’s prime minister Arseniy Yatseniuk stepped down late on Sunday afternoon, accusing the president’s party of plunging the country into an “artificially created” crisis. (http://on.ft.com/25Tzz0V)
Opposition is growing in Germany to Deutsche Boerse AG’s merger with London Stock Exchange, as concern mounts about the consequences for the combined company if Britain votes to leave the European Union. (http://on.ft.com/25TzQ3R)
NYT
– After two years of heavy legal and financial consequences, General Motors has finally turned the tide and started winning lawsuits related to the gravest safety crisis in its history. So far this year, General Motors has prevailed in three injury lawsuits, including a case dismissed on Friday, in ongoing litigation to resolve hundreds of remaining claims linked to its recall of 2.6 million small cars with faulty ignition switches. (http://nyti.ms/1qCKrA7)
– Panama leak signaled something that was a big deal but went unheralded: The official WikiLeaks-ization of mainstream journalism; the next step in the tentative merger between the Fourth Estate, with its relatively restrained conventional journalists, and the Fifth Estate, with the push-the-limits ethos of its blogger, hacker and journo-activist cohort. (http://nyti.ms/23nKJwf).
– In the year since Pakistani investigators raided Axact, a Karachi-based software company accused of raking in hundreds of millions of dollars with a vast Internet degree scam, Pakistani and American investigators have uncovered a tangled web of corporate entities – dozens of shell companies and associates, from Caribbean tax havens to others in Delaware, Dubai and Singapore – used to funnel illicit earnings back to Pakistan.(http://nyti.ms/1WmFirO)
– Intuit, a Silicon Valley company, is now focusing on its TurboTax software, which tens of millions of Americans use to file their tax returns, and on QuickBooks Online, an Internet-based version of the company’s flagship book-keeping software for small businesses and their accounting firms. (http://nyti.ms/1Vh9JRp)
Britain
The Times
* The owner of the Three mobile phone network has complained to the European Commission that Vodafone Group PLC, its rival, is seeking to bully it into coughing up 1 billion pounds to drop objections to its takeover of O2. (http://bit.ly/1qI5aCF)
* Thousands of patients are dying because the NHS cuts corners on operations for the critically ill, the Royal College of Surgeons has warned. (http://bit.ly/1RNq9xS)
The Guardian
* The boss of Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the UK’s government department overseeing a 10 million pound inquiry into the Panama Papers, was a partner at a top city law firm that acted for Blairmore Holdings and other offshore companies named in the leak. (http://bit.ly/1Xpy5Wt)
* Companies will be held criminally liable if they fail to stop their employees from facilitating tax evasion, UK Prime Minister David Cameron will tell MPs, as he uses a parliamentary statement to defend himself after one of the most difficult weeks of his premiership. (http://bit.ly/23m9OaH)
The Telegraph
* Tesco PLC will unveil a return to full-year profits and the first quarter of UK sales growth in three years on Wednesday as chief executive Dave Lewis tries to prove to investors his turn-around plan is working. (http://bit.ly/1Yo9cue)
* David Cameron will launch a robust defence of the right of parents to give money to their children after Labour said it will review inheritance tax rules. In an unprecedented Commons appearance, the prime minister will reject suggestions that he has avoided tax after he disclosed that he had personally profited from his stake in an offshore investment fund. (http://bit.ly/1oOFnXQ)
Sky News
* Chancellor George Osborne has “never had any offshore shareholdings or other interests”, a Treasury source has told Sky News. The comments come after members of David Cameron’s Cabinet were urged to follow the prime minister’s lead and publish any links they have with tax havens. (http://bit.ly/1SInrGc)
* The bosses of some of Britain’s biggest companies are warning that they may refrain from further interventions in the debate about Europe amid concerns that they risk falling foul of strict campaign rules. Sky News understands that the Electoral Commission will publish new guidance on Monday setting out the scope of activities permissible for businesses once the referendum period formally begins on Friday. (http://bit.ly/1UT5VFn)
The Independent
* Dozens of London Underground stations are at “high risk” of flooding, with London “fortunate to have escaped” the worst consequences so far. An unpublished report seen by The Independent reveals Transport for London has identified 85 sites across its network which are at high risk of flooding. (http://ind.pn/1RMW816)
* Lobbying companies working at the heart of Whitehall are exploiting loopholes in transparency legislation that allow them to avoid declaring clients who pay them thousands of pounds to help influence Government policy, The Independent can reveal. (http://ind.pn/1VLccBU)
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1N3RBHj Tyler Durden