Global business
Tesco reported a worse-than-expected pretax loss of $9.6 billion for the year ended Feb. 28, one of the biggest losses in British corporate history. The world's third-biggest supermarket retailer, which is being squeezed by discount rivals such as Aldi, booked several charges and took a hefty write-down in the value of its stores.
Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil giant, released its much-delayed quarterly results, its first audited accounts since a corruption scandal involving former executives shook the government of President Dilma Rousseff. The company wrote off $2.1 billion because of the alleged graft and another roughly $15.29 billion for overvalued assets, mainly on a petrochemical plant and a refinery.
In an attempt to increase lending to business, the People's Bank of China lowered the level of cash that banks must set aside as reserves, reducing the reserve-requirement ratio by one percentage point, the biggest cut since the global financial crisis in 2008. This came after data showed that China's economy grew in the first quarter at its weakest pace since early 2009 and that industrial production had slowed considerably in March.
The Nikkei 225 stock market index closed above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years. Japanese shares have been boosted in part by a government-backed drive for companies to return more of their $1.9 trillion cash pile to shareholders. Markets were also buoyed by Japan's first monthly trade surplus in three years.
The feverish dealmaking in the drug industry continued as Teva, based in Israel and the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, launched an unsolicited $40 billion takeover of Mylan, an American rival. Mylan had itself recently offered $29 billion for Perrigo, which has its headquarters in Ireland (that deal has been scotched). If it succeeds, Teva's acquisition would be the biggest foreign takeover yet made by an Israeli firm.
After years of declining profit margins, Volvo dismissed Olof Persson as chief executive. The Swedish truckmaker named Martin Lundstedt as its new boss, who currently heads Scania, a rival that is owned by Volkswagen. The German carmaker has had its own management problems of late, with its board issuing support for Martin Winterkorn as chief executive despite his spat with Ferdinand Piëch, who later resigned as chairman.
Google launched a wireless service that charges $20 a month for phone and text services, $10 per gigabyte of data and refunds customers if they don't use all their data allowance. It also overhauled its mobile-search algorithm to prefer sites that are mobile-friendly. The consequences for the search rankings of some organizations have caused the change to be dubbed "mobilegeddon."
Cirque du Soleil was bought by a consortium that includes Fosun, a Chinese conglomerate that hopes to develop the acrobatic troupe's shows in China. Fosun has been boosting its entertainment portfolio to tap into leisure spending by China's middle class.
Political economy
After yet another horrific capsizing in which hundreds of would-be migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, European Union leaders vowed belatedly to take action. Italy declared war on the human traffickers. And an emergency E.U. summit met to discuss a 10-point plan to respond to the boat crisis. More than 1,750 migrants have now died trying to make the crossing to Europe from north Africa since the start of the year, 30 times more than during the same period of 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Fresh jitters about the potential for a Greek exit from the eurozone caused a sharp sell-off in Greek markets and pushed yields on two-year government bonds to new highs. Talks on resolving a standoff between the left-wing government and Greece's creditors got nowhere. Without extra funding the country could default on its repayments as soon as next month.
Poland is to buy American Patriot surface-to-air interceptor missiles. This follows Russia's move to position missiles in its exclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
