Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
The case for digital tender: Jean-Francois Groff, CEO of payments company Mobino and original web pioneer, sets out his case for why governments should issue digital e-money directly. More so, why it is their duty to embrace the digital revolution and give digital cash the same legal tender standing as physical cash.
Raining on Reinhart and Rogoff: The FT Alphaville team take you through the findings of the recent Herndon, Ash and Pollin paper which has found serious coding errors and flaws in the methodology of Reingart and Rogoff's famous paper on sovereign debt sustainability, including its much politicised 90 per cent deterioration threshold finding.
NEWS
Credit Suisse is facing a shareholder revolt over pay after ISS, the proxy adviser, asked investors to block the bank's plan to issue 27m shares – worth more than SFr700m ($760m) at current market prices – for employee bonuses. (Financial Times)
Gold's fall costs Paulson $1.5bn this year: Paulson has about 85 per cent of his personal capital in the firm linked to the gold price, according to people familiar with the matter. (Financial Times)
"Intel's gross profit margin fell harder than expected in the opening months of this year as it geared up for a new generation of microprocessors that are seen as vital to the struggling PC industry's hopes for a rebound." (Financial Times)
Burberry beats estimates: The luxury goods maker reported fourth quarter revenue that beat analysts' estimates helped by demand for its more expensive products.(Bloomberg)
Yahoo display ads sales disappoint: Yahoo's search advertising revenues during the first quarter overtook those from banner ads and other display formats for the first time in three years, after changes to products such as its homepage and email failed to give an immediate boost. (Financial Times)
Tesco profits plunge on £2.4bn writedown: Britain's biggest retailer by sales said it had taken a £1bn charge for quitting its failed US venture Fresh & Easy. It also took a surprise £804m property writedown in the UK for projects it will no longer pursue because of its decision to call time on the so-called supermarket space race. There was a £495m writedown in central Europe and a further £115m provision for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance as well. (Financial Times)
BHP Billiton reaffirmed its full-year production guidance in spite of a lacklustre performance from its iron ore and petroleum assts in the past quarter. (Financial Times)
"Italian police say they have frozen €1.8bn of assets of Banca Nomura International, a unit of Nomura Holdings, as part of a widening criminal investigation into alleged financial malpractice at Monte dei Paschi di Siena." (Financial Times)
787 battery decision expected 'soon': Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told a US congressional committee on Tuesday he expects to decide "very soon" whether to approve Boeing's redesigned 787 Dreamliner battery system, potentially ending a three-month ban on flights by the high-tech jet. (Reuters)
Markets: A swift drop for European stocks stood in contrast to a firm showing out of Asia, as investors parsed a number of catalysts, including a mixed bag of corporate earnings, concerns over global growth and the support provided by ongoing central bank largesse. Gold was up $11 to $1,379 as anecdotal evidence emerged that the recent price slump was encouraging a surge of physical buying by consumers, even as investors continued to shed their holdings in exchange traded funds. The dollar index was adding 0.2 per cent even as money moved out of Treasuries, nudging 10-year yields up 1 basis point to 1.73 per cent. The FTSE All-World equity index was flat as the FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.7 per cent and after the Asia-Pacific region advanced 0.7 per cent. Stocks in Asia and Europe got a lift from Wall Street's strong close overnight, but after much of the former had closed, sentiment in the latter took a sharp turn for the worse. (Financial Times)
