- China's Central Banker to Fed: Act Responsibly (WSJ [22])
- Spain's debt to jump to 78 percent of GDP: De Guindos (Reuters [23])
- Rajoy Needs All the Luck He Can Get (WSJ [24])
- Spain Faces Risks in Budget Refit (WSJ [25])
- Top JP Morgan banker resigns to fight abuse fine (Reuters [26])
- Reinhart-Rogoff See No Quick U.S. Recovery Even as Data Improve (Bloomberg [27])
- Program to help spur spending in domestic sector (China Daily [28])
- Barnier hits out at lobbying ‘rearguard’ (FT [29])
- U.S. CEOs' take-home pay climbs on stock awards (Reuters [30])
- Portuguese Bailout Expectations Anchor Yield Curve: Euro Credit (Bloomberg [31])
- U.K. to Avoid Recession Though Growth Remains ‘Weak,’ BCC Says (Bloomberg [32])
- Li focuses on boosting growth in Asia (China Daily [33])
- Barney Frank says he will fight derivatives bills (Reuters [34])
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
* President Barack Obama said a Supreme Court overturn of the health-care law would be a prime example of the judicial activism that conservatives have derided.
* The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining Groupon's revision of its first set of financial results as a public company.
* Avon Products, weakened by poor financial results, a long-running bribe probe and a lame-duck CEO, is now in play after Coty Inc made an unsolicited $10 billion takeover offer.
* U.S. regulators alleged a "wash trading scheme of massive proportion" by Royal Bank of Canada, which was accused of unlawfully trading stock futures in order to get tax benefits.
* Dropbox followed the Internet start-up playbook to a tee last year, riding the Web boom and raising $250 million at a $4 billion valuation. Now comes the hard part: Living up to the hype.
* Express Scripts and Medco won government approval for their merger, setting the stage for the creation of a massive pharmacy-benefit manager.
* Illumina Inc's board unanimously rejected Swiss drug maker Roche Holding AG's sweetened takeover offer, saying the revised bid is still inadequate and opportunistic.
* Meat processor AFA Foods Inc filed for bankruptcy court protection Monday, saying a national controversy over a common filler for ground beef severely curbed consumer demand for its products.
FT
INVESTORS HIT BACK AT TRINITY MIRROR
Big investors in Trinity Mirror have hit back at proposed changes to the pay scheme for Sly Bailey, its chief executive, saying that cuts to directors' remuneration packages do not go far enough.
RBS EYES FIRST PAYOUT IN FOUR YEARS
Royal Bank of Scotland is preparing to make its first dividend payment in four years as the state-backed bank attempts to overcome one of a number of obstacles in its path to reprivatisation.
EU'S BARNIER HITS OUT AT LOBBYING 'REARGUARD'
Europe's most senior financial regulator has hit back at "rearguard lobbying" by the hedge fund and private equity industries, saying he "will not be intimidated" by an attempt to undermine a deal to regulate the industry for the first time.
SEC'S RISK MONITORS HOME IN ON BOARDS
The Securities and Exchange Commission has held meetings about risk management with directors at Goldman Sachs and several other financial groups in an attempt to increase accountability at board level.
GE TAKES RISK IN BRINGING JOBS HOME
Jeff Immelt, General Electric's chief executive, says the decision to put $1 billion into the group's domestic appliances business is "as risky an investment as we have ever made."
AVON REJECTS $10 BILLION OFFER FROM COTY
Avon Products has rejected an unsolicited $10 billion cash offer from Coty, the privately owned U.S. fragrance group, as the door-to-door cosmetics seller seeks to stay independent while searching for a new chief executive and grappling with financial and legal troubles.
WOMEN VOTERS SURGE TO OBAMA
Barack Obama has secured a large lead over Mitt Romney among women voters after the recent conservative debate in the U.S. over contraception, according to new polls, tempering Republican relief that the party's prolonged nomination fight is coming to an end.
CVC AND VALUEACT QUIT BIDDING FOR MISYS
CVC Capital Partners and ValueAct Capital have pulled out of the race to buy Misys, leaving Vista Equity Partners in pole position to take over the banking software specialist.
NYT
* An increasing number of the nation's savings and loan associations are avoiding some federal oversight by becoming credit unions or switching to a state charter.
* With house prices still down, some large investors are creating huge portfolios by buying thousands of homes at deep discounts and then renting them out.
* Regulators said that though the deal between Express Scripts Inc and Medco Health Solutions Inc would create the industry's biggest company, the market was more competitive than it first appeared.
* Coty's $10 billion unsolicited bid for Avon Products Inc didn't come out of the blue. The two companies talked for several months, people briefed on the matter said.
* As the Western European auto market enters a slump, the burden of reducing its costly production surplus is likely to fall disproportionately on communities like Bochum, Germany.
* Wall Street held on to its gains after a private survey showed the American manufacturing industry growing.
* A group of powerful local businessmen led by George E. Norcross III bought the Philadelphia Media Network, which includes The Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com.
* The Royal Bank of Canada was accused of orchestrating an elaborate trading scheme in a lawsuit filed on Monday by regulators, who allege that the bank used bogus trades to generate lucrative tax benefits.
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
- The Harper government is going to overhaul the way it buys next-generation fighters in the face of a spending watchdog's damning report due Tuesday on the mistakes Ottawa has made so far in acquiring F-35 jets.
- A Hungarian crime family ran the largest human-trafficking ring in Canadian history, bringing people from their home country to work for no pay on Ontario construction sites, buying and selling some for a few thousand dollars a head, and using them as household servants.
Reports in the business section:
- Royal Bank of Canada has been accused by U.S. regulators of breaking the rules in order to orchestrate a complex trading scheme to gain a tax advantage in Canada.
- Pax-All Manufacturing Inc, an Ontario company that makes cosmetics and over-the-counter drugs has been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from shipping its wares to U.S. dollar stores until it cleans up its alleged shoddy manufacturing practices.
NATIONAL POST
- A senior federal bureaucrat, who was stripped of his secret security clearance and his job after CSIS gave his employer "adverse information" about his loyalty to Canada, has lost a grievance of his termination.
Reports in the business section:
- The Bank of Canada governor fleshed out his concerns about excessive consumer borrowing Monday, noting that the trend is being enabled partly by buyers from "abroad" and is "unsustainable."
- Samsung Electronics Canada plans to open several retail outlets throughout the country this year as the Korean electronics giant looks to follow in the footsteps of rivals Sony Corp and Apple Inc by creating a more direct relationship with consumers.
European Economic Data
Spain Unemployment for March (000’s) 38.8 m/m – lower than expected. Consensus 54.0. Previous 112.3.
Euro zone PPI for February 0.6% m/m 3.6% y/y – higher than expected. Consensus 0.5% m/m 3.5% y/y. Previous 0.7% m/m 3.7% y/y. Revised 0.8% m/m 3.8% y/y.