The Daily Mail Is One Of The Companies Trying To Buy Yahoo’s Internet Assets, Plus Tesla Flies Too Close to the Sun

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“More Wall Street traders watch golf than watch basketball, it would appear” — BB&T analyst Corinna Freedman. Under Armour shares dropped nearly 6% yesterday after UA sponsor Jordan Spieth’s devastating Masters meltdown, despite fellow UA sponsor Steph Curry’s killer season. Of course, the real reason for Under Armour’s collapse could be Morgan Stanley’s weekend downgrade of the stock, but who are we to ruin a great sports narrative?

 

MARKET SNAPSHOT
Big Picture

  • U.S. stocks closed negative to kick off the week, sending the S&P back into negative territory for 2016 as investors approach earnings season with little confidence

Alternatives to Watch

  • Oil jumped above $40 for the first time since late March as the U.S. rig count continued falling and data showed a possible increase in demand in China

Market Movers

  • Italian banks rose sharply as executives met with central bank officials to reach an agreement on developing a fund to support some of the country’s troubled lenders
  • Shares of car rental company Hertz plummeted 10% after it lowered its revenue forecast in comparison to forecasts of 2.5% growth—that Hertz

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U.S. MACRO

Fun in the Sun

The plot keeps on thickening in the ongoing Puerto Rican debt crisis. Puerto Rican debt crisis? That’s right, in case you hadn’t noticed, the U.S. territory is buried under $70 billion of debt and is running out of cash—not what we call a great combo. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of ideas to get out of it: yesterday, Puerto Rico proposed splitting $49 billion of debt into two bond categories, which would allow investors to get their principal back unscathed while reducing Puerto Rico’s burden. The proposal may or may not go through, but it buys Puerto Rico some time with creditors while it waits on Congress to decide its fate.

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CORPORATE PRIMER

Yahoo’s Inbox is Blowing Up

The line of suitors vying for Yahoo’s internet assets keeps getting longer. Late to the game, British newspaper Daily Mail is the most recent company to take its place in line. What’s so sexy about Yahoo anyway? Simply put, ad revenues and a wide reach. Whoever offers the highest bid will acquire Yahoo’s search engine, email, sports and news divisions, which accounted for $100 million of the media company’s revenues last year. Mark April 18 on your calendars, people—that’s when the bidding war officially starts.

Goldman Pays Up…Finally

The U.S. Department of Justice finally convinced Goldman Sachs to settle on a hefty $5.06 billion for its wrongdoings…during the financial crisis. Clearly, Goldman wasn’t in a hurry to shell out the dough. To refresh your memory, the settlement has its roots in the bank’s involvement with faulty and misleading mortgage-backed securities. The money will be distributed to investors who suffered immensely and will go towards civil penalties. Too little, too late? We’ll see what the investors say. What we do know: Goldman is the last bank to shed some blood on the Street, as most other banks have fessed up over the past year. Frankly, it’s about time.

Tesla Flies Too Close to the Sun

It was bound to happen one day—that day just happened to be yesterday. What we’re getting at: even Elon Musk can’t avoid production problems. Tesla announced a recall of 2,700 Model X vehicles yesterday after discovering (through internal testing, props to Tesla) that the back row of seats poses a danger in accidents. The recalls come at an interesting time for the budding car company, as it tries to ramp up current production for the Model X and the launch of the affordable Model 3 next year. When push comes to shove, Tesla needs to be ready for the current count of 325,000 Model 3 reservations.

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OTHER STORIES

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ECONOMIC CALENDAR

  • Monday: Alcoa (+/-) Earnings
  • Tuesday: JPMorgan Chase Earnings; Import/Export Prices
  • Wednesday: Retail Sales; Producer Price Index; Business Inventories; Beige Book
  • Thursday: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Delta, Progressive Earnings; Consumer Price Index; Weekly Jobless Claims
  • Friday: Citigroup, Charles Schwab, Seagate Earnings; Industrial Production; Consumer Sentiment; Empire State Manufacturing Survey

FACEBOOK TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS (AND CONSUMERS, TOO)

Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite day of the year isn’t Christmas. It isn’t his birthday, either—it’s Facebook’s annual F8 conference, which kicks off today. And the social media giant isn’t standing pat—here’s what to expect:

  • The early 2000s chatbot will meet modern day Facebook: Messenger will soon be updated with the potential for “structured messages.” May not be a great way to reply to friends, but it’s a great feature for communicating with businesses.
  • In case you don’t want a chatbot reply from businesses, customers will also be able to request live chats from businesses via Messenger.
  • Plus, those handy instant articles (the ones that load in-app on your iPhone or Android phone) will expand to represent all publishers that want to take part—not just the likes of Buzzfeed and the New York Times.
  • Where’s all this going? Many of these updates are focused on closing the gap between consumers and companies. In other words, Facebook is amping up its marketing game.

INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY

How can you add eight 8’s to get the number 1,000 using only addition? (Answer)

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BUSINESS PERSON OF THE DAY

Patrick Byrne — The founder and CEO of e-commerce company Overstock.com, who announced yesterday that he will take an indefinite leave of absence due to a 30-year long battle with Hepatitis C. Over the years, Byrne has been a strong voice against abuses of power on Wall Street.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Many are aware of the widening income gap between the rich and poor in the U.S.; however, a lesser known fact is even more alarming: a new Stanford University study found that the life expectancy between the top 1% of male earners differed from the bottom 1% by 10 years.

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