What to watch for today
Cypriot banks reopen. Everyone is wondering how bad the rush will be to get money out when banks open their doors at noon local time (10:00 am GMT). The supposedly temporary capital controls include a cap of €300 per day on withdrawals, a €3,000 limit on taking money out of the country, and a ban on cashing checks. Nicosia is already swarming with helicopters and armed police as container trucks of cash are ferried to banks.
BlackBerry reports earnings. There’s not a lot of optimism over the launch of the Z10.
Obama meets with African leaders at the White House, as the administration attempts to tacitly reward progress towards democratic reforms.
Brazil’s unemployment numbers, and Germany’s too. After scraping an all-time low of 4.6% in December, the Brazilian jobless rate drifted higher in January. Today will reveal February’s data. Meanwhile, Europe’s largest economy reports on March unemployment, after an unexpected decline in the jobless rate in February.
While you were sleeping
Asians markets got up on the wrong side of bed. Stocks are down in much of Asia after China’s regulators tightened rules on dodgy bank offerings know as wealth management products .
Dell’s deal may die but Michael Dell can stay. Blackstone Group, one of the rival bidders for Dell, said it is open to keeping Michael Dell as CEO if it wins the bid for his computer company.
Japan’s economy will recover by the middle of this year. At least that’s what BOJ chief Haruhiko Kurod is promising.
Lloyd’s and RBS are woefully short of cash. The two banks, both part-owned by the British government, together make up £20 billion of the £25 billion shortfall in British banking’s capital requirements.
Wal-Mart vs. Amazon.com. The world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, announced plans to boost its e-commerce offerings as it goes head-to-head against its online rivals.
The world’s biggest ever cyber attack. Coming from “a decommissioned, nuclear-war proof NATO bunker in the Netherlands with five foot-thick concrete walls and a reputation for harboring spammers and cybercriminals.”
Quartz obsession interlude
Christopher Mims explains why the internet is making us poor. “Like farming and factory work before it, the labors of the mind are being colonized by devices and systems. In the early 1800′s, nine out of ten Americans worked in agriculture—now it’s around 2%. At its peak, about a third of the US population was employed in manufacturing—now it’s less than 10%. How many decades until the figures are similar for the information-processing tasks that typify rich countries’ post-industrial economies?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Marissa Mayer was right. You should work at the office—but not because it improves productivity.
Winning fixes everything. It worked for Tiger Woods; does it work for the US economy?
The end is nigh. Swapping cheap natural gas for petroleum and increasing fuel economy could spell the end of the oil era.
Vengeance is mine! There is no difference between vengeance and justice.
Chinese reverse migration has begun. More and more people are leaving polluted cities for the countryside.
Surprising discoveries
High and low skills pay the bills. Job growth is expanding in extremely high- and low-skill areas in the US, and that’s a problem.
A new outbreak of floating dead animals in China. Don’t tell Nassem Talib.
Assembly required. Foxconn is going to manufacture Google Glass in the US.
Railroads spike. American railroads are on a building boom, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Gilded Age (paywall).
Which are China’s most hated companies? Hint: Apple isn’t one of them.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, and Cyprus bank heist screenplays to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.