Overnight record high for the Dow, Asian stocks rose. In Tokyo the Nikkei edged up as high as 0.9 per cent and shares in Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's biggest bank, headed for their June 2009 high (Bloomberg).
Chinese exports grew less than expected for the first time in four months. First-quarter trade with the US rose by 10.8 per cent from a year earlier, but China's trading with the EU fell 1.9 per cent to $124.4bn. Overall shipments abroad rose 10 per cent, below the 11.7 per cent median estimate of forecasters (Bloomberg, Financial Times).
EU policymakers discussed including short-term interbank debts on the list of liabilities that can be bailed-in during a bank rescue. The move is among potential amendments to the EU's bail-in directive following haircuts for uninsured depositors in the Cyprus crisis. Northern eurozone governments also proposed accelerating the bail-in tools' entry into force from 2018 to 2015 (Wall Street Journal). European Parliament lawmakers also plan to enshrine a preference for depositors over senior bondholders in the pecking order of creditors under the new rules, including haircuts for uninsured depositors "as a last resort" (Bloomberg).
The FBI is investigating insider trading allegations tied to leaks from KPMG's Los Angeles office. KPMG resigned as the auditor of Herbalife and Skechers following its disclosure of the leaks (Reuters). Scott London, the 30-year KPMG veteran at the heart of the case, admitted tipping "someone I'd known from the golf club" (Wall Street Journal). "I regret my actions in leaking nonpublic data to a third party," London said.
Vince Cable warned that he is closer to setting quotas for getting more women on FTSE boards. There is a "real possibility" of quotas following data for March showing that 17.3 per cent of FTSE 100 directors were women, the UK Business Secretary said. The figures were down slightly from 17.4 per cent in September but far off a 25 per cent target for 2015 (Financial Times).
Southeastern Asset Management said Dell's board had failed to make the case for going private at $13.65 per share. Southeastern, the largest outside shareholder in Dell, attacked Michael Dell's buyout proposal as "unfair". It looked more favourably on competing offers from Blackstone and Carl Icahn in a letter to the board. "We view these proposals as superior primarily because each offers shareholders the opportunity to remain owners of Dell, while also offering a higher cash price to owners who choose to exit their investment," it said (Financial Times).
Austria and Luxembourg signalled they are willing to ease their tough bank secrecy rules. The two countries are the only ones in the EU not to automatically exchange information about depositors. The Austrian chancellor said he was "prepared to negotiate about automatic data-exchange concerning the accounts of foreigners in Austria that has been requested by the EU." Luxembourg's finance minister has also said that his country "no longer strictly rejects" changes to bank secrecy (Financial Times).
UK companies could face a £450bn bill from EU reforms of pensions. Tough capital requirements for final salary-linked pension schemes could produce a funding gap of this size according to estimates published by the European pensions regulator (Reuters).
COMMENT AND CURIOS
- Boom times - and "black money" - on the Karachi Stock Exchange. (Reuters)
- Meanwhile the Mongolian Stock Exchange wobbles, amid a political face-off with miners (Bloomberg).
- Martin Wolf's advice to Japan: "Tax corporate savings, instead." (Financial Times)
- Hollande compared to Louis XVI. Ouch. (Financial Times)
- How to choreograph a Cyprus eurozone exit. (Bloomberg)
- The "world's most-volatile sovereign debt after Greece's" is... Japan. (Bloomberg)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS: UP
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +80.54 (+0.61%) at 13,272.89
Topix up +17.03 (+1.55%) at 1,119.07
Hang Seng up +21.66 (+0.10%) at 21,892
US markets
S&P 500 up 5.54 (+0.35%) at 1,568
DJIA up +59.98 (+0.41%) at 14,673
Nasdaq down +15.61 (+0.48%) at 3,237
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +0.56 (+0.05%) at 1,165
FTSE100 up +36.27 (+0.58%) at 6,313
CAC 40 up +3.94 (+0.11%) at 3,670
Dax down -25.13 (-0.33%) at 7,637
Currencies
€/$ 1.30 (1.30)
$/¥ 98.96 (99.26)
£/$ 1.53 (1.53)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.14 at 106.37
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.30 at 93.90
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -0.20 at 1,586
Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 343.80
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 1.75%
UK 1.74%
Germany 1.26%
Sources: FT, Bloomberg
