A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day
BREAKING NEWS
Pfizer and Allergan have officially scrapped their merger deal thanks to the new rules on corporate inversions.
STOCKS/ECONOMY
Stock futures are a bit higher after yesterday's selloff. Today's rise in crude prices is helping. Investors are hoping to get some more favorable information from the Fed Minutes which will be released right at 2pm Eastern live on Power Lunch.
-The economy may not have grown at all in first quarter.
-Mortgage applications jumped 2.7% last week on a refi surge.
OIL/ENERGY
-Crude prices are up more than 2% and are now at the $36/barrel level after hitting a one-month low yesterday.
Gasoline prices fell a penny to $2.04/gallon, national average.
-The Justice Dept. will file papers today to block Halliburton from buying smaller rival Baker Hughes.
ELECTION
-Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders won their respective party primaries in Wisconsin and by the significant margins they needed to throw serious doubts into the hearts of supporters for frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
-Of course because of super delegates, Sanders' 14 percentage point trouncing of Hillary Clinton nets him only 3 more delegates than she won.
-Donald Trump is bashing Ford's announcement yesterday that it's opening a new assembly plant in Mexico.
-And Bernie Sanders is now bashing GE for also shifting jobs to Mexico.
RETIREMENT RULES
-The Obama team will roll out new rules for retirement investment advisers aimed at curbing abuses. But will it make going into the profession of retirement advising not worth it by going too far?
TERROR/DEFENSE
-South Korea says that North Korea can now affix nuclear warheads on midrange missiles.
-Because of concerns about Iran mostly, Saudi Arabia has become the world's #3 defense spender.
-It looks like a new "kamikaze drone" made by the Israelis has been used in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The drone is a serious innovation because it can not be defeated by air defenses.
PANAMA PAPERS
-The law firm at the center of the "Panama Papers" scandal has links to more than 1,000 US companies.
NORTH CAROLINA LAW
-PayPal says it's cancelling plans to open an operations center in Charlotte in protest of NC's new bathroom law.
FAMILY LEAVE
-San Francisco has just passed a law forcing employers to give employees six weeks of fully paid family leave.
TECH WARS
-WHATSAPP says it is now encrypting messages for all its users.
-A new app will tell you if your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend has been using the dating/hook up site Tinder. Divorce lawyers must be thrilled.
MOVING AMERICA
-Porsche has won the wrongful death lawsuit brought against it by the family ofthe late actor Paul Walker.