- Oil touches three-month lows, as U.S. supply swells (Reuters)
- Oil Steadies Below $49 as U.S. Drilling Threatens Longer Glut (BBG)
- Traders Brace as Crucial Events Loom for Markets (WSJ)
- Preet Bharara’s Probes Likely to Continue After His Exit (WSJ)
- Dollar steadies after three-day fall (Reuters)
- GOP Health Plan Would Hit Rural Areas Hard (WSJ)
- GOP healthcare bill hangs in the balance (The Hill)
- At the Fed, spring comes early with return to new ‘normal’ (Reuters)
- Your Pension Check May Soon Be Coming From an Insurance Company (WSJ)
- ECB’s Smets Says Bank Hasn’t Taken First Step Toward Removing Stimulus (WSJ)
- Market Drift Suggests Some Investors May Be Trading on U.K. Economic Data Ahead of Release (WSJ)
- Trump’s Trade ‘Hammer’ Aims to Pound China, Mexico and the WTO (BBG)
- Credit Reports to Exclude Some Negative Data, Boosting Scores (WSJ)
- HSBC Shares Gain After Bank Names AIA’s Tucker as Chairman (BBG)
- China may roll back electric car quotas as industry pushes back (Reuters)
- Anti-immigration hardliner joins Finns party’s leadership race (Reuters)
- This Banker Emerged From the Collapse a Billionaire Hero (BBG)
- Japan to send largest warship to South China Sea (Reuters)
- Russia, Turkey, Iran to press ahead with Syria talks: Kazakhstan (Reuters)
- What to Expect in U.K. Markets When May Pulls Brexit Trigger (BBG)
- Las Vegas sports gambler to face trial on insider trading charges (Reuters)
- Turkey Dispute Is Boosting Wilders (BBG)
- Valeant Receives Lender Consent For Refinancing And Amendment Of Credit Agreement (PR)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Facing lackluster sales in the world’s fifth-largest consumer market, Wal-Mart Stores Inc is making a contrarian bet in Brazil, investing heavily to revamp its U.S.-style big-box stores even as shoppers increasingly flock to smaller, cheaper options. http://on.wsj.com/2ne32Vl
– Less than three years after Etihad Airways saved Alitalia SpA from bankruptcy, the Italian airline is once again on the brink. After spending 400 million euros ($427.84 million) to buy effective control of Alitalia in 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier launched a much-ballyhooed effort to improve the Italian airline’s service, expand its international routes and make the domestic business leaner. http://on.wsj.com/2nec98z
– Tesla Inc’s Elon Musk has set his sights on Australia, betting his company’s battery technology can help solve the country’s energy problems and save it from a repeat of the blackouts that struck households and businesses in the south for several days last year. http://on.wsj.com/2nedYCD
– HSBC Holdings PLC named AIA Group Ltd. Chief Executive Mark Tucker as its next chairman, the first time the bank has hired an outsider for the role in its 152-year history. http://on.wsj.com/2necfNt
– “Kong: Skull Island” made a muscular $61 million debut at the North American box office over the weekend, but the monster movie will nonetheless need to sustain momentum to reach profitability. “Kong,” released by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros, grossed an estimated $81.6 million overseas. http://on.wsj.com/2nejrta
FT
Mobile operator Vodafone Group Plc will create 2,100 new customer service jobs across Britain in the next two years as part of an investment drive to improve operations in its home market.
UK rents fell 0.6 percent in February, the first decline in six years, driven by a sharp drop in the cost of new tenancies in London and south-east England.
Chief executive of Yildiz-owned Pladis, Cem Karakas, said McVitie’s and Godiva were at the heart of the global expansion plan by its Turkish owners to boost biscuit sales by 50 percent in two years.
HSBC Holdings Plc tapped insurance veteran and AIA Group Ltd boss Mark Tucker as chairman to replace Douglas Flint. Among the first tasks for Tucker will be to identify a successor to HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver, who informed the HSBC board he will quit his post in 2018.
NYT
– Mark Tucker, chief executive of the Asian life insurer AIA Group, is set to replace Douglas Flint as chairman of HSBC in October, the bank said on Sunday. http://nyti.ms/2mh2rOI
– Iceland’s finance ministry said on Sunday that in the coming week it would lift the remaining capital controls that have been in place since the financial crisis in 2008, easing restrictions on households and businesses. http://nyti.ms/2lRQUJr
– China’s commerce minister castigated what he called “blind and irrational investment.” At a news briefing during the annual meeting of China’s congress, the minister, Zhong Shan, said officials planned to intensify supervision of what he called a small number of companies. http://nyti.ms/2mYG8kq
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Canada’s federal agencies in charge of statistics and taxes both say they have fixed vulnerabilities in their computer systems that forced them to shut down some online services over the weekend. https://tgam.ca/2mikvah
** The military’s top police officer says his service will review all sexual assault cases that were dismissed as unfounded going back to 2010, making the Canadian Forces Military Police Group one of more than 50 forces to commit to similar audits in response to a Globe and Mail investigation. https://tgam.ca/2mivOzc
** Justin Trudeau has often said that open party nominations would allow local members to choose who can become a Liberal candidate, but a recent race shows that the Prime Minister has the final word over who gets on the ballot in some of these hotly contested campaigns. https://tgam.ca/2mir0df
NATIONAL POST
** Emerging as a bonafide Canadian oil powerhouse, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd’s blockbuster C$12.7 billion ($9.45 billion) deal with Royal Dutch Shell has propelled the company into the exclusive club of listed global companies that pump out more than a million barrels of oil every day. http://bit.ly/2mizpxd
** Canadian pipelines will fill up earlier than expected and, according to a new report, lead to a surge in oil-by-rail shipments as early as this year. http://bit.ly/2mitGYu
Britain
The Times
* DeepMind, a machine-learning operation bought by Google in 2014, has held talks with UK’s National Grid about embedding its software in the electricity network, the Sunday Times can reveal. http://bit.ly/2njTYex
* Senior government sources say that when British Prime Minister Theresa May triggers article 50, she will point out that Britain is entitled to the return of funds worth 9 billion pounds held by the European Investment Bank. http://bit.ly/2ndNJfl
The Guardian
* British homebuilder Bovis Homes Group is in talks with rival construction firm Galliford Try over a merger that would create one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders. http://bit.ly/2ntNlW6
* The troubled two billion pounds privatisation of the Green Investment Bank has already cost at least one million pounds of taxpayer money in consultancy fees, official documents have revealed. http://bit.ly/2mgiz1X
The Telegraph
* The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Baferton Ltd, a Cyprus-registered vehicle funded by Hakan Uzan, has paid around 50 million pounds to acquire Hampshire manufacturer Vertu from its Chinese owners Godin Holdings. http://bit.ly/2mgiBqO
* Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon can name the date on which she intends to hold a second Scottish independence referendum as early as this week. http://bit.ly/2mBcfFL
Sky News
* Sky News has learnt that Privet Capital and Hilco, which has transformed the fortunes of HMV, the entertainment retailer, tabled takeover bids for Vivid in the last few days. http://bit.ly/2mBmvxL
* British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson has warned that Russia is capable of undermining the democratic process and is up to “all sorts of dirty tricks”. His comments come as spy chiefs warn British political party leaders about the threat of Russian hacking at the next general election. http://bit.ly/2mYhsZn
The Independent
* Theresa May’s plans to rely on World Trade Organisation tariffs in the case of a hard Brexit will cause a “major economic shock” and is worse than any other option, according to an unpublished Treasury document leaked to the Independent. http://ind.pn/2mNtsfO
via http://ift.tt/2miD7qP Tyler Durden