- Republicans Struggle to Unite on Health Bill (WSJ)
- Trump Still Negotiating in Bid to Save Healthcare Bill Before Vote (BBG)
- Trump Tantrum looms on Wall Street if healthcare effort stalls (Reuters)
- High stakes for Trump in vote on healthcare plan (Reuters)
- GOP Lawmaker Sparks New Battle Over Trump Spy Claim (WSJ)
- Lawmaker says U.S. foreign surveillance ‘unmasked’ Trump associates (Reuters)
- Arrests mount after UK parliament attack (Reuters)
- Trump Jr. Called a ‘Disgrace’ for Criticizing London Mayor (BBG)
- ‘What a mad world’ says minister who tried to save wounded officer in parliament (Reuters)
- U.S. embassies ordered to identify population groups for tougher visa screening (Reuters)
- SNB Spent 67.1 Billion Francs on Currency Interventions in 2016 (BBG)
- 0% Financing Deals Bite Back Retailers as Fed Raises Rates (WSJ)
- Where De Beers Hid Its $5 Billion Diamond Stash (BBG)
- Democrats Seize on Disability Ruling in Opposing Gorsuch (WSJ)
- Inside the Troubled Kushner Tower: Empty Offices and Mounting Debt by Caleb Melby and David Kocieniewski March (BBG)
- Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs (BBG)
- Teva to Cut as Many as 6,000 Jobs: Israeli Newspaper (BBG)
- Stanford’s New Freshman Class Is for Successful Retirees (BBG)
- China says U.S. should respect China’s air defense zone (Reuters)
- Drugmakers Take to Airwaves to Counter Trump’s `Murder’ Charge (BBG)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Elliott Management Corp, one of the biggest activist investors in the U.S., is pushing Dutch paint and chemicals giant Akzo Nobel NV — which traces its roots in part to dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel—to enter into talks with PPG Industries Inc, a Pittsburgh-based rival. http://on.wsj.com/2muLioW
– AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc joined a growing number of companies pulling much of their advertising from Google, expanding a controversy over the internet giant’s ad placements on objectionable content and deepening the financial impact on the company even after it announced measures to assuage concerns. http://on.wsj.com/2muPa9x
– Sears Holdings Corp’s raised doubts in a securities filing about its ability to keep operating after seven years of losses, sending the retailer’s share price tumbling and spooking some of its landlords. http://on.wsj.com/2muElUF
– Nike Inc said a sneaker homage to the cult classic film “Space Jam” was a smash hit, but the retro shoes were a rare highlight in otherwise troubling results for the world’s largest athletic company. http://on.wsj.com/2muLnce
– Nick Denton will leave bankruptcy having weathered a multimillion-dollar judgment from an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit that forced the chapter 11 sale of his Gawker media business. http://on.wsj.com/2muB9bW
– Starbucks Corp plans to hire more U.S. military veterans and their spouses after facing backlash over its promise to hire refugees. Presiding over his last annual shareholders meeting as chief executive, Howard Schultz said Starbucks will hire 15,000 veterans and their spouses by 2025, on top of more than 10,000 hired since a pledge he made four years ago. http://on.wsj.com/2muFDiB
– General Electric Co said it would double its planned cost cuts in industrial operations over two years and more closely tie top executives’ bonuses to profit in its core business. http://on.wsj.com/2muJEUe
– China Petroleum & Chemical Corp said it would acquire controlling stakes in Chevron Corp’s businesses in South Africa and Botswana, in a roughly $900 million deal that underscores the ambition of China’s struggling oil companies to earn more money abroad as profits shrink at home. http://on.wsj.com/2muLfJw
FT
One of Britain’s biggest water companies, Thames Water, was handed a record 20 million pound ($25 million) fine on Wednesday for pumping sewage into the River Thames.
Two of UK’s biggest teaching unions, the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, will merge to form the National Education Union with more than 450,000 members.
Britain’s markets watchdog did not wrongfully identify a former JPMorgan executive in the “London Whale” scandal, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a landmark case that endorses a regulatory policy of speedy corporate settlements.
NYT
– Federal prosecutors are investigating North Korea’s possible role in the theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh in what security officials fear could be a new front in cyberwarfare. http://nyti.ms/2nfjR11
– AT&T and Johnson & Johnson, among the biggest advertisers in the United States, were among several companies to say on Wednesday that they would stop their ads from running on YouTube and other Google properties amid concern that Google is not doing enough to prevent brands from appearing next to offensive material, like hate speech. http://nyti.ms/2nEPwKs
– Akzo Nobel, the Dutch paint and chemicals company that makes Dulux paint, said on Wednesday that it had rejected a second takeover bid from PPG Industries, turning away a $24 billion deal that would have created an industry behemoth. http://nyti.ms/2mSvzeG
– President Trump’s second pick to lead the Labor Department told senators on Wednesday that he would not allow partisan political considerations or conservative ideologues to shape his department, pushing back against accusations by Democrats that he had looked away as subordinates at the Justice Department stacked his office with ideological allies during the George W. Bush administration. http://nyti.ms/2npSNwr
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Finance Minister Bill Morneau has put off tax hikes on wealthier Canadians, delivering a budget Wednesday that promises new money for job training, child care and social housing but offers no plan to improve the country’s debt outlook. https://tgam.ca/2neJZJk
** The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has made Canada a prospective member, welcoming Ottawa into an institution that marks one of China’s leading efforts to take a place of global leadership. https://tgam.ca/2nqU6LQ
** Mounting troubles at U.S. parent Sears Holdings Corp raise questions about the fate of Sears Canada Inc , which has also suffered from declining financial results. https://tgam.ca/2n8nNij
NATIONAL POST
** Vancouver-based streaming company Silver Wheaton Corp is proposing a name change to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp as it seeks a brand that better reflects the increasingly large contribution gold is making to its bottom line. http://bit.ly/2nUIRsF
** Trican Well Service Ltd said it would issue new shares to buy fracking competitor Canyon Services Group Inc for C$637 million ($478 million) Wednesday even though both companies have oilfield service equipment sitting idle. http://bit.ly/2mTNwJF
** Restaurant chain Freshii Inc posted strong sales at locations open for more than a year in its first quarter as a public company as it pursues an aggressive global expansion plan. http://bit.ly/2o7T30q
Britain
The Times
Centrica Plc gave its chief executive a 37 per cent pay rise last year, to 4.2 million pounds ($5.24 million), despite freezing its payouts to investors. http://bit.ly/2n95IRq
Geely, the Chinese carmaker, has revealed plans to launch Britain’s first dedicated electric van manufacturing plant in the factory it built in Coventry to assemble battery-driven black cabs. http://bit.ly/2n8YU6n
The Guardian
Several of Heineken N.V.’s brands have been absent from Tesco Plc shelves for six weeks after annual talks over pricing ended in a stalemate. http://bit.ly/2ndKqUc
More than 1,000 jobs are at risk after shoe retailer Brantano collapsed into administration. http://bit.ly/2n93zVD
The Telegraph
First Utility <IPO-FRUT.L> has set its sights on the broadband sector in an attempt to widen its consumer appeal as retail competition heats up. http://bit.ly/2n97HFs
The owner of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers is to make compulsory redundancies for the first time in its history as management attempts to stem years of financial losses. http://bit.ly/2ndYxZC
Sky News
An unarmed police officer who was among four victims of a terror attack in Westminster has been named as PC Keith Palmer. http://bit.ly/2n98zd4
The Independent
Amer Sajed, one of Barclays Plc’s senior-most executives, is retiring to fight for civil liberties in U.S. http://ind.pn/2n91RDG
Thames Water has been fined 20.3 million pounds for polluting the River Thames with 1.4 billion litres of raw sewage. http://ind.pn/2n98HJz
via http://ift.tt/2nGjzBn Tyler Durden