What to watch for today
Citigroup offers the latest bad news from banks. Net income is expected to fall (paywall) 5.3% to $3.6 billion, with revenue declines in several areas. JP Morgan and Wells Fargo reported weak results on Friday, and analysts aren’t expecting much cheer from the sector as a whole this earnings season.
Pakistan and the Taliban try talking again… Peace talks, which have been sporadic since Pakistan initiated them last May, are set to resume, according to a Taliban representative; Pakistan’s interior minister expects negotiations “over the next few days.”
…And so do India and China. The two countries’ foreign ministers get together to discuss trade and security issues in Beijing, the sixth in a long-running series of “strategic dialogues.”
Signs of a US shopping recovery. The commerce department releases March retail sales at 8:30am ET. A Bloomberg survey predicts some recovery from the winter’s slowdown, led by a rebound in car sales.
Over the weekend
Violence erupted in eastern Ukraine. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Sunday, after Ukrainian security forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russian militia occupying police headquarters in the town of Slavyansk.
China bought a huge mine. A Chinese consortium led by state-owned MMG agreed to buy the Las Bambas copper mine in Peru from Glencore Xstrata, for $5.8 billion. China’s government had insisted Glencore and Xstrata sell the mine to get antitrust approval for their merger.
Hopes of finding MH370 faded. Searchers think the batteries may have expired on the missing airliner’s black boxes; there have been no new pings since last week. Separately, investigators think the plane tried to dodge radar before it vanished.
Millions of Android devices have Heartbleed. The security bug affects phones and tablets with version 4.1.1 of Google’s mobile operating system, the company said. Blackberry also planned to release a security update for its mobile messaging service.
The European Central Bank outlined its plan to boost inflation. Policymaker Benoit Coeure said asset purchases were the central bank’s tool of choice to reach the ECB’s inflation goal of just under 2%.
GlaxoSmithKline was accused of bribery in Poland. The drugmaker allegedly paid doctors to promote its anti-asthma drug Seretide between 2010 and 2012—the latest in a string of GSK bribery investigations.
Facebook targets financial services. The social networking site is weeks away from gaining regulatory approval in Ireland that will allow users to store money and send funds to each other (paywall).
Bird flu broke out in Japan. Almost 300 chickens died and avian influenza was detected in their carcasses. The government has begun culling 112,000 chickens in Kumamoto prefecture.
Quartz obsession interlude
Lily Kuo on China’s plan to create an urban area more populous than Germany. “The country’s top economic planner has reportedly drawn up a plan for a Beijing-centered “economic circle” (link in Chinese) that combines the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin and parts of Hebei province into one huge megalopolis. Officials believe that integrating the three areas will help alleviate traffic, population, and housing pressure in Beijing, which is struggling with air pollution, water scarcity, and a flood of migrant workers.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Google is now a master lobbyist. The “don’t be evil” firm used to be disdainful of such behavior.
We’re living in a new Gilded Age… Thomas Piketty’s Capital In The Twenty-First Century makes it clear that today’s income disparities are a throwback to those of the 19th century.
…That borrows working-class pensions to pamper the rich. Main Street dollars are financing the lifestyles of cosmopolitan yuppies.
High-frequency trading isn’t all bad. For all its skewed incentives, HFT has also cut the cost of trading for small investors.
Noah is more accurate than most children’s Bible stories. The movie doesn’t gloss over the Great Flood as a mass genocide.
Surprising discoveries
The Netherlands has glow-in-the-dark road. Not only does it look cool, it saves energy too.
Nude sunbathers of Munich, rejoice. The city has allocated six naturalist-friendly zones.
Small plates are a big deal. The economics make sense for restaurants, partly because they make people have more fun when dining out.
Run the London Marathon from the gym. A virtual-reality setup lets you experience the entire course from the comfort of your own treadmill.
Your airline seat will soon know you scarily well. It will scan the data from your mobile phone and analyze your facial features.
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