Via Bloomberg:
S&P 500 Rallying 206% Beats Wage Growth by Most in Five Decades 
Being an American worker with no stake in the equity market has, by one measure at least, seldom been costlier.
Even though wages are improving, the rate of growth in what companies pay employees pales in comparison to what stocks have handed investors over the last six years. In fact, with equities rising 20 percent annually and wages up 2 percent, the gap has never been wider in any bull market since 1966. (Read more)
Ibovespa Futures Rise as Commodity Gain Buoys Export Prospects
Ibovespa futures climbed as an increase in commodity prices improved the outlook for Brazil’s raw-material exporters, including Vale SA.
State-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA may move after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported the company’s chief executive officer expects losses related to a corruption probe will be less than 10 billion reais ($3.2 billion). Consumer stocks including cosmetics maker Natura Cosmeticos SA may be active as analysts covering Brazil projected a deeper contraction of the economy in 2015. (Continue)
The Simple Reason Mohamed El-Erian Has Most of His Money in Cash 
n an interview with the Orange County Register, Mohamed El-Erian was asked about everything from life after Pimco to where he is currently putting most of his money. Rather than putting most his money in stocks or bonds, El-Erian reveals that most of it is actually sitting in cash. And the reason is simple: pretty much everything else has gotten too elevated. (Full article)
Cloud Live Says Will Miss Payment in 2nd China Onshore Default
China’s corporate bond market may experience its second default after Internet company Cloud Live Technology Group Co. said it will miss payments, and Premier Li Keqiang said the nation will tolerate individual cases of financial risk. (More here)
Amazon Woos EBay’s Once-Loyal Merchants With Sales Growth
EBay Inc.’s once-loyal merchants are moving more of their business to Amazon.com Inc., saying they get more for their money by selling merchandise via the Web retailer.
Amazon’s pool of merchants climbed to more than 2 million in 2014, while the number of sellers on EBay has remained flat at about 25 million in the past two years. Businesses that at first set up online storefronts on EBay say they’re surprised how quickly sales surge on Amazon once products appear on both sites. (More)
Dudley Says Pace of Rate Increases Is Likely to Be ‘Shallow'
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said the path of interest-rate increases is likely to be “shallow” once the Fed starts to tighten, and recent economic weakness probably won’t persist.
The timing of the first rate increase since 2006 “will be data dependent and remains uncertain because the future evolution of the economy cannot be fully anticipated,” Dudley said in a speech Monday in Newark, New Jersey. “I anticipate that the path will be relatively shallow” as “headwinds in the aftermath of the financial crisis are still in evidence.” (Continue reading)
BMW’s New Sensors Do the Braking for You 
More than 90 percent of auto-related crashes are due to human error: a distraction, a mistake.
With its new “Active Assist” technology, BMW is trying to do everything it can to take those errors out of the equation.
Using laser sensors, the system effectively keeps a 360-degree vigil and will automatically and gently brake before a vehicle hits any stationary object. (More here)
M&T to Miss Hudson City Deal Deadline After Surprise Delay
M&T Bank Corp. said that regulators won’t be able to complete a review of its proposed acquisition of Hudson City Bancorp by April 30, and that the deal will miss its latest deadline. (Here)
From Business Insider:
This may be the most ridiculous thing you'll read in a Wall Street research note
Wall Street's equity analysts – the folks who recommend when to buy and sell stocks – are paid to make forecasts.
They forecast everything from industry trends, sales, profit margins, and, most importantly, earnings. (Read more)
Wells Fargo: 'We like the new Microsoft,' so DON'T sell the stock 
Is Microsoft's stock a good buy right now, hovering at about $41? Or is it overpriced, with another drop looming when management fails to meet consensus revenue and profit targets?
In a new research note, Wells Fargo thinks it's a good buy. The team, lead by senior analyst Jason Maynard, just upgraded the stock to "outperform," with a target of $46 to $50. (Continue)
THE WEARABLES REPORT: Growth trends, consumer attitudes, and why smartwatches will dominate
Wearables face unique obstacles that will lead them to have less of an immediate market impact compared with tablets and smartphones.
For now, most of the devices need to connect with a smartphone or tablet for most of their functionality. (More)
Edward Snowden's in-depth interview with James Bamford of Wired offers details about his last job as a contractor for the NSA in Honolulu, which raise disconcerting questions about the motives of the former systems administrator.
While working at two consecutive jobs in Hawaii from March 2012 to May 2013, the 31-year-old allegedly stole about 200,000 "tier 1 and 2" documents, which mostly detailed the NSA's global surveillance apparatus and were given to American journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in June 2013. (More here)
From Pando Daily:
Like money in politics and bad Hollywood remakes, some problems in America are at once so destructive and so impossibly difficult to solve that they’re too depressing to even think about.
So it is with companies that keep massive stockpiles of cash in foreign countries in order to avoid paying US corporate tax rates. In fact, the only thing that prevents this issue from being relentlessly bleak is the absurdity of what some of these companies get away with. For example,according to the advocacy and lobbying group Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), American corporations claim to have earned so much profit selling goods in tax-free zones like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda that the figure amounts to 16 times these countries’ total GDPs — which defies reality. (More here)
Posted on Youtube:
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Goverment Surveilance (HBO)
