Opening Bell: 3.16.15

Germans Tired of Greek Demands Want Country to Exit Euro (Bloomberg)
Berlin cabdriver Jens Mueller says he’s had it with the Greek government and he doesn’t want Germany to send any more of his tax money to be squandered in Athens. “They’ve got a lot of hubris and arrogance, being in the situation they’re in and making all these demands,” said Mueller, 49, waiting for fares near the Brandenburg Gate. “Maybe it’s better for Greece to just leave the euro.”

Greece Optimist Throws in Towel Seeing Tsipras Go ‘Plain Nuts’ (Bloomberg)
Erik Nielsen likes to spend Sunday mornings ruminating over the world economy at a cafe near his west London home. Finding his favored Caffe Nero too crowded on Mother’s Day, the chief global economist of UniCredit Bank AG beat a retreat to his own study. From there, he also changed direction on Greece. “I am throwing in the towel,” Nielsen wrote in his “Sunday Wrap” report. “If they don’t want to play by the rules (and the past weeks give me little hope,) they should get ready to leave!” “And please appreciate what a difficult conclusion that is to draw for a deeply committed European like myself,” said Nielsen.

Father-daughter duo leave Merrill Lynch (NYP)
Tom Buck, 61, joined Merrill in 1982, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rec­ords, working out of Indianapolis and becoming one of the company’s largest and most powerful producers. Buck was terminated for allegedly making unauthorized trades in client accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter, though the size or duration of he trades is unknown. A spokeswoman for Bank of America, which owns Merrill, didn’t respond to questions about the allegedly unauthorized trades but confirmed that Buck is no longer at the firm. Buck’s termination sent shock waves through BofA, where brokers across the country were told of his leaving, one employee said. By Friday, Merrill had scrubbed his information from the wire house’s system, the person said. Buck, along with his daughter Ann, who is an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader as well as an adviser, exited the firm on March 6 under a cloud.

Get ready for March Madness [spike] on Wall Street (CNBC)
The NCAA basketball tournament is nearly here, and while we don't know who is going to win the title, we can predict one thing. The stock market is probably going to do better than your bracket. Based on data from the past 10 years, almost every major stock has seen a positive return during the annual tournament. According to some estimates, there could be upwards of $9 billion bet on this year's tournament, through 70 million brackets created. The vast majority of people are going to lose out in their brackets, and they most likely would have returned a profit instead if they had traded stocks. The breakdown comes from market data firm Kensho. Simply put, every single stock in the Dow Jones average has had a positive return in the past 10 years during the time frame of March 17 through April 6, the dates of this year's tournament. Without exception, equities have gone up on average.

Video shows man riding motorcycle through mall during police chase (UPI)
The chase occurred on Feb. 20, but the video was only recently released. The Surrey police were alerted to a man riding his motorcycle recklessly around 2:00pm, and he refused to stop when pursued by the police. The man drives through the mall, nearly hitting several bystanders, and he rides down many side streets after exiting the mall. No one was injured. The police have not yet apprehended him.

Banco de Madrid Files for Bankruptcy After Parent Accused of Money Laundering (WSJ)
Banco de Madrid SA, the Spanish unit of an Andorran lender accused of laundering money for organized-crime groups, has filed for protection from its creditors, Spain’s central bank said Monday. Banco de Madrid has been hit by substantial client withdrawals, the central bank said, which has impacted the ability of the lender to “meet its obligations in a timely matter.”

Dodd-Frank reforms face new assault (FT)
The burst of activity comes after a change to the Dodd-Frank act in December provoked a backlash from leftwing Democrats, who accused Republicans, who took control of Congress this year, of doing favours for Wall Street. Senior Republicans now hope that further bank-friendly changes to Dodd-Frank could garner enough cross-party support to overcome White House resistance. But with Wall Street still seen as politically toxic, proponents of the 2010 law and its defenders say that to win bipartisan support any legislation would have to focus narrowly on fixes that help only small or medium-sized banks.

OPEC says low oil prices may hit U.S. output by late 2015 (Reuters)
U.S. oil output could start to take a hit by late 2015, OPEC said on Monday, suggesting the exporter group will have to wait beyond its next meeting in June to see if the oil price collapse is beginning to dent the shale oil boom.

Silicon Valley Investor Warns of Bubble at SXSW (Bits)
“There is no fear in Silicon Valley right now,” Mr. Gurley said Sunday at the South by Southwest music and technology conference. “A complete absence of fear.” Mr. Gurley, a former engineer at Compaq Computer and current partner at Benchmark, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, has been warning of an impending Silicon Valley bubble burst for quite some time. He cites the multiplicity of so-called unicorns, or private companies valued at more than $1 billion by investors. By some accounts, there are more than 50 of these billion-plus companies in the Valley at the moment, with more added seemingly every other week. “I do think you’ll see some dead unicorns this year,” Mr. Gurley said.

The 'Grateful Dead' Ticket Bubble (CNBC)
Ask an investor to envision a 580 percent return, and he or she might picture Netflix shares rally over the past two years. Ask a ticket scalper, however, and he'd probably be singing a song by The Grateful Dead. That's because it's what some resellers returned (post-fees) after overwhelming demand crashed the Ticketmaster site once tickets went on sale for the band's "Fare Thee Well" concert tour. Some resale listings on sites like StubHub shot as high as $116,000 for tickets that cost less than $300.

Woman attacks cop ticketing boyfriend for urinating: NYPD sources (NYDN)
A woman assaulted a Manhattan cop after he tried to issue a summons to her boyfriend for urinating in public early Monday, police sources said. The officer was treated at Jacobi Hospital for a thumb injury but was not badly hurt. The 12:55 a.m. incident led to a brief disturbance on a Washington Heights street corner. When it was over, the suspect and his girlfriend were in custody and three other people were issued summonses.