- Investors help Athens over bailout hurdle (FT)
- Greece Moves Closer to Swap (WSJ)
- U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers (WSJ)
- China offers other Brics renminbi loans (FT)
- Court Challenges EU on Bank Downsizings (WSJ)
- QE blamed for surge in pensions shortfall (FT)
- Tang: Open to adjusting dollar trading band (WSJ)
- U.S. Report to Warn on Cyberattack Threat From China (WSJ)
- ICBC’s Yang Says Lending ‘Normal’ After Report of March Decline (Bloomberg)
- Indonesia to Pare Foreign Investors’ Mining Stakes (WSJ)
WSJ
* The Justice Department has warned Apple and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books.
* The Afghan Air Force is being investigated by the U.S. for allegedly using aircraft to ferry drugs and weapons around the country.
* Fed officials are considering a new type of bond-buying program designed to subdue worries about future inflation if they decide to take steps to boost the economy.
* Fresh signs of economic weakness in Brazil are adding to a growing worry for the global economy: that the emerging markets that have boosted growth in recent years are slowing.
* Greece moved a step closer to completing its debt restructuring when a raft of bondholders pledged to participate in the swap, likely enabling the troubled nation to force the deal through.
* Facebook added 25 underwriters to an original group of six for its IPO and boosted its financial muscle with a new credit line and bridge loan.
NYT
* Firms are racing to cut the cost of sequencing the human genome, which will yield new approaches for treating cancers and other serious diseases, biologists say.
* Money is cheap for companies with good credit, and they are piling into the corporate bond market. But what is good for borrowers may not be so good for lenders - in this case the investors buying the bonds. Rates have gone so low that some question whether they can fall any farther.
* Apple updated the iPad on Wednesday with a high-definition screen, a faster wireless connection and several other refinements, all packaged in a device without any major design changes.
* AMR Corporation, the parent of bankrupt American Airlines, pulled back on Wednesday from its previous threats to terminate all employee pension plans.
It announced that it would freeze three of the four plans - the ones for everybody except its pilots - instead of turning them over to the federal government. That prospect could have meant cuts in the pensions that some workers took home.
* Responding to changes in health care, big hospital groups are expected to get even bigger. And some hospitals will join forces with once-unlikely partners, health insurers and for-profit companies, a new report says.
* The Treasury Department announced a plan on Wednesday to sell $6 billion of its American International Group shares, further whittling down the federal government's holdings in the insurance giant it helped bail out during the financial crisis.
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
- Canada gave a dramatic show of support to the struggle for freedom in one of the world's most despotic countries Thursday as Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird paid a historic visit to Myanmar.
Baird kicked off his visit by meeting his counterpart, Wunna Maung Lwin and Myanmar President Thein Sein, the country's new reform-minded leader.
- Canada is entering a busy stretch of solar storms that will amplify the Northern Lights, with one major "space weather" event expected to hit the atmosphere over North America Thursday morning.
Reports in the Business Section
- Bank of Montreal is reigniting the mortgage wars among the country's major banks.
Canada's fourth-largest bank is bringing historic low rates back into the market, only a few weeks after it and several other lenders pulled similar discounts, amid concerns over collapsing profit margins.
- About 8,000 people in Barbados - 3 percent of island's population - are suing Manulife Financial Corp alleging that it bilked them of money they should have received when the insurer became a public company.
NATIONAL POST
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a pointed gift for Barack Obama after several days in Washington this week: A copy of the Book of Esther, which tells of the genocidal plot against the Jewish people devised by Haman the Agagite.
- The Hospital for Sick Children announced Wednesday that the founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes Peter Gilgan is donating $40-million toward the new $400-million Sick Kids Centre for Research and Learning. It is the largest private gift made to a Canadian pediatric hospital.
Financial Post section:
- With the launch of the next generation of its iPad tablet, Apple Inc has staked, once again, its claim to the throne atop the tablet kingdom - while at the same time opening a window for its rivals to finally catch up.
European Economic OUpdate
- France Non-Farm Payrolls for Q4 -0.1% - higher than expected. Consensus -0.2%. Previous -0.2%.
- Bank of England Bus. Sentiment for February 95 – lower than expected. Consensus 96. Previous 96.
- France Trade Balance for January -5324m – lower than expected. Consensus -51050m. Previous -4993m.
- Greece Unemployment Rate for December 21.0% m/m. Previous 20.9% m/m.
- Swiss CPI for February 0.3% m/m -0.9% y/y – higher than expected. Consensus -0.2% m/m -1.0% y/y. Previous -0.4% m/m -0.8% y/y.
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