More than 100 points off the DJIA. The index fell 0.8 per cent to 14550.35 and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1 per cent, on a combination of poor jobs data and an oil price slump that hit energy stocks (Bloomberg). Private-sector job growth slowed to 158,ooo positions in March against the 200,000 widely expected (Financial Times).
Fed policy and asset purchases watch: Bullard -- "It is full steam ahead right now" (Bloomberg); Williams -- "we could start tapering our purchases" by the summer if labour markets show substantial improvement (FRBSF).
The US will send a missile defence battery to Guam amid continued North Korean threats to launch a nuclear strike. Pyongyang earlier closed access to a joint economic zone with South Korea but stopped short of shutting it down completely (Reuters). US missile defence units had not been expected on Guam until 2015 (Financial Times).
A former Goldman trader pleaded guilty to wire fraud for for hiding $8.3bn in unauthorised futures positions. Matthew Taylor had earlier voluntarily turned himself over the FBI (Reuters). The criminal charge follows civil allegations by the CFTC last year that Taylor had concealed trades and losses in S&P 500 e-mini futures in late 2007 (Financial Times).
The Bundesbank has opened a probe into claims Deutsche misvalued credit derivatives at the height of the financial crisis. The SEC is already investigating the allegations by whistleblowers that the bank hit $12bn of losses using leveraged super senior trades (Financial Times).
Banco do Brasil plans to spin off its insurance unit for $6bn, in what would be the largest global IPO so far this year. The state-run lender is also looking to buy City National Bank of Florida, which Spain's Bankia put up for sale last year (Wall Street Journal).
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- Tinfoil hats are so A/W 2012: presenting the "anti-drone burqa".
- Mt Gox market data for Bitcoins, to go with the anti-drone burqa.
- Barclays as the Apple Store. Or not.
- Where's the real macro decoupling?
- Chesapeake and some "futile" energy hedges.
- The death of peak oil -- a revisionist history.
- How the rise of repo survived bankruptcy law.
