Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The Federal Reserve holds steady. Although the US economy is relatively healthy, the central bank is expected to delay hiking its benchmark rate, due to global economic instability.
Facebook faces great expectations. After a string of strong quarterly performances, the social media giant has a high bar to impress investors when it announces its earnings. Analysts expect 48% revenue growth versus last year, with mobile ads accounting for 80% of the total.
Earnings, earnings, earnings. Other companies reporting quarterly results (pdf) include Marriott, PayPal, Boeing, Hilton, and Comcast. Mitsubishi Motors will likely skip its earnings forecast after it admitted to cheating on fuel efficiency tests for 25 years.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won big in the northeast. Trump added five victories and a large number of Republican delegates to his increasingly dominant presidential campaign. On the other side, Clinton was declared the winner in four states, with Rhode Island going to Bernie Sanders.
Comcast began to court DreamWorks Animation. The US cable giant may offer more than $3 billion to acquire the maker of animated films including Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall).
Belgium extradited a chief suspect in the Paris attacks. Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who was arrested in a raid in Brussels after four months on the run, will now face trial in France. His lawyer described his client as a man “with the intelligence of an empty ashtray.”
Venezuela’s public sector got a two-day week. The government imposed the short working week on two million public servants to combat the energy crisis caused by rapidly falling water levels, a few weeks after president Nicolás Maduro declared Fridays a holiday to reduce energy consumption. Opposition leaders, angry at the president’s handling of the economic crisis, are seeking a referendum to have him removed.
Barclays reported a slump, but shares rose. The British bank’s pre-tax profits fell by 33% for the three months to the end of March to £793 million ($1.16 billion) from £1 billion a year earlier, thanks to a drop in trading and bad loans linked to the oil and gas sector. Shares jumped 4.5% on the news that the bank had received approaches for its African business.
Total’s profit sank. Despite boosting production (paywall) to a 10-year high and cutting costs, the French oil giant reported a 40% drop in first-quarter net profit. It made $1.61 billion in the first quarter of 2016 compared to $2.66 billion in the same period last year.
Quartz obsession interlude
Akshat Rathi on how new research shows an extreme diet can reverse type-2 diabetes: “We still don’t understand why such reversal is possible. A leading hypothesis is that, following weight loss, removal of excess fat from the liver and pancreas can kickstart insulin-producing cells to normalize sugar levels.” Read more here.
Matters of Debate
Driverless trucks will be hugely disruptive. They will slash shipping costs and put millions of people out of work.
The smartest people are often the least happy. They tend to use yardsticks for success that are largely meaningless.
Dating foreigners is tough in China. Not because they’re spies, but because of irreconcilable political differences, young women say.
Surprising discoveries
The UK might pay out research grants in bitcoin. The controversial cryptocurrency could simplify a complicated process.
A 12-year-old New Yorker accidentally ran a half-marathon. She thought she was on the 5k course, but completed it in 2:43.
Your dog probably hates hugs. Canines are hardwired to run from trouble, and embraces make them feel trapped.
The rich didn’t always live longer than the poor. After the 18th century, expensive medicine caused the life expectancy gap to grow wider and wider.
The US army destroyed $800 million of ISIL’s money in an airstrike. That’s a big stash.
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