- Trump or Cruz? Republicans face tough choices as primary race churns forward (Reuters)
- The Week the Republican Party Melted Down (BBG)
- Rust Belt Could Be Donald Trump’s Best Route to White House (WSJ)
- China’s Leaders Put the Economy on Bubble Watch (WSJ)
- Top Chinese Official Rebutts Soros Prediction for Hard Landing (BBG)
- China Plans Income-Tax Overhaul to Bolster Consumption (BBG)
- Oil jumps as sentiment boosted; analysts warn of glut (Reuters)
- The Odd Couple: Merkel, Tsipras Fate Tied Over EU Refugees Deal (BBG)
- As covered here last week: The Treasury Market’s Big Short Is in 10-Year Notes, Repos Show (BBG)
- China angered by planned U.S. export restrictions on ZTE (Reuters)
- Europe Faces Pension Predicament (WSJ)
- The ETF Files: How the U.S. government inadvertently launched a $3 trillion industry (BBG)
- Draghi Aims ECB’s Killer Blow in 11th Round Versus Deflation (BBG)
- European Central Bank Faces Questions Over Which Bonds to Buy (WSJ)
- Russia offers access to its Syria bases to help deliver aid (Reuters)
- In JPMorgan Fintech Bunker, Coders Are Too Focused for Foosball (BBG)
- BASF shares fall after report it is weighing DuPont bid (Reuters)
- Wall Street vets battle BP in fallout over Canada refinery (Reuters)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– Donald Trump’s success in attracting white, working-class voters is raising the prospect that the Republican Party could attempt to take an unexpected path to the White House that would run through the largely white and slow-to-diversify upper Midwest. (http://on.wsj.com/1TCNAfn)
– Nancy Reagan, the former actress who brought grace and style to her role as first lady in the Ronald Reagan White House, has died in her home in Los Angeles due to congestive heart failure at age 94. (http://on.wsj.com/1U5OShm)
– The Democratic presidential contenders clashed sharply over economic policy in a debate Sunday, with front-runner Hillary Clinton attacking rival Bernie Sanders for his opposition to a federal auto bailout and Sanders charging that Clinton-backed trade deals had helped destroy American cities like Detroit. (http://on.wsj.com/21R94d1)
– Record vehicle leasing could pinch new auto margins by creating a glut of good-condition used cars and adding pressure on new-vehicle margins after years of pricing gains. (http://on.wsj.com/1W1dd7b)
– The European Central Bank’s expected move to further reduce a key interest rate is likely to drive down government-bond yields, further reducing borrowing costs that are already near record lows in many nations, according to analysts and investors. (http://on.wsj.com/1npS7U1)
– China’s leaders made clear they are emphasizing growth over restructuring this year, but suggested they are trying to avoid inflating debt or asset bubbles as they send massive amounts of money coursing through the economy. (http://on.wsj.com/1QA51uf)
– United Continental Holdings Inc said President and Chief Executive Oscar Munoz plans to return to the carrier on a full-time basis on March 14. (http://on.wsj.com/1QEBtZ1)
FT
French utility EDF’s chief financial officer, Thomas Piquemal, has resigned over the company’s plan to build nuclear reactors in Britain.
The Pension Protection Fund is in talks with Philip Green and British Home Stores that could see the agency take on responsibility for 20,000 pensioners of the lossmaking department store chain.
The British Chambers of Commerce said on Sunday its director general, John Longworth, had resigned after calling for Britain to leave the European Union despite the business lobby group taking a neutral stance on an upcoming referendum.
The Bank of England is going to lay its focus on reviewing operations of the market risk managers as average daily trading payments held at the utilities topped 8 billion pounds ($11.37 billion) last year.
NYT
– The Obama administration, responding to consumer complaints, says it will begin rating health insurance plans based on how many doctors and hospitals they include in their networks. (nyti.ms/1TkOkW1)
– The Philippines will become the first country to enforce tough new United Nations sanctions on North Korea when it begins formal procedures on Monday to impound a cargo vessel linked to the reclusive nation, a government spokesman said on Sunday. (nyti.ms/1TkP8KA)
– For the first time, a law school will stand trial on charges that it inflated the employment data for its graduates to lure prospective students. On Monday, Anna Alaburda will tell a story that has become all too familiar among law students in the United States: Since graduating from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2008, she has yet to find a full-time salaried job as a lawyer. (nyti.ms/1TkQ55B)
– As some tech sectors show signs of slowing, cloud services have created remarkable demand for highly educated engineers and mathematicians. And they are being compensated very well. (nyti.ms/1TkROrM)
– In an interview, Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s competition commissioner, discusses the issues underpinning her current investigations and whether she unfairly targets U.S. companies. (nyti.ms/1TkSfCi)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s official visit to the White House this week should result in a new border pact that will remove a series of barriers hindering the flow of travellers and trade while improving security, says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.(bit.ly/1X6kWkp)
** In a new paper called Augur: Mining Human Behaviors from Fiction to Power Interactive Systems, a group of Stanford University computer science researchers revealed that they used the Wattpad “corpus” – a collection of almost two billion words (or 600,000 chapters) written by regular people – to help a computer understand the world around it. The team intends to make the program they built, Augur, into an open-source tool that other researchers can build on.(bit.ly/1ROFfla)
NATIONAL POST
** Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president – and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease – has died. She was 94. (bit.ly/1QFn5zM)
** The son of a former Ottawa cleric who encouraged Libyans to “take part in jihad” was reportedly killed in an armed clash with government forces in Benghazi over the weekend. The death of Owais Egwilla, described as a former Ottawa university student, was announced on social media accounts affiliated with Libyan fighters.(bit.ly/1W2HlPn)
Britain
The Times
* Npower’s German owner to cut 2,500 UK workers
The owner of npower, RWE AG plans to cut more than a fifth of its British workers as it braces itself for a fresh attack by the consumer watchdog.
* Business leader quits in Brexit row
John Longworth was suspended on Friday after making a speech in favour of leaving the EU despite the British Chambers of Commerce’s decision to remain neutral in the referendum campaign.
The Guardian
* EU referendum: British exit would be ‘poison’, says German finance minister (http://bit.ly/1Yi2xCE)
A British decision to leave the European Union would be “poison” for the UK, European and global economies that would last for years, the German finance minister has said.
* Grexit back on the agenda again as Greek economy unravels
European finance ministers will once again deliberate over how to treat Greece’s ongoing debt crisis this week despite the country desperately grappling with refugees pouring across its borders.
The Telegraph
* England’s water market poised for M&A wave
Water utilities in England are braced for a market shake- up, with analysts expecting a wave of mergers, acquisitions and new entrants within the next three months to tap the increasingly competitive business supply market.
* UK manufacturing has hit bottom, says EEF
Industry trade group EEF said that “rays of light” have begun to cut through the gloom which in 2015 caused the UK’s manufactured output and orders to hit their lowest point in six years.
Sky News
* FTSE-100 giant Old Mutual plots 9 billion pounds break-up
The FTSE-100 financial services group Old Mutual Plc is plotting an audacious nine billion pounds ($12.79 billion) break-up which could spark a takeover battle for some of the City’s most prominent wealth management operations.
The Independent
* Local employers take fight to Gatwick over second runway plan (http://ind.pn/1OX2kgY)
Gatwick airport’s claims that a 7.8 billion pounds second runway would boost business and create 120,000 jobs have been challenged by owners of local companies who fear expansion could damage them badly.
* Female retail bosses fall out of fashion
The number of female chief executives appointed at UK retailers fell by 40 percent last year despite pressure to improve the number of women in senior positions, according to a new report.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1UMGmVa Tyler Durden