Opening Bell: 4.11.16

Interest Heats Up for Yahoo as U.K.’s Daily Mail Mulls Bid (WSJ)
The U.K.’s Daily Mail has emerged as a suitor for Yahoo Inc.’s assets, joining a wide group of interested companies that includes telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. as an April 18 deadline for preliminary offers nears, according to people familiar with the matter. The parent company of the Daily Mail, the British newspaper and global tabloid website, is in talks with several private-equity firms to launch a bid for Yahoo, the people said. Daily Mail & General Trust PLC, whose main interest is Yahoo’s news and media properties, is just one of some 40 players that have expressed interest in the Web portal.

U.S. banks' dismal first quarter may spell trouble for 2016 (Reuters)
Analysts forecast a 20 percent decline on average in earnings from the six biggest U.S. banks, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. Some banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), are expected to report the worst results in over ten years.

Russia’s Most Important Bank Needs a Bailout (WSJ)
Vnesheconombank for years kept its books in balance by borrowing heavily from foreign lenders. But after being slapped with sanctions by Europe and the U.S. following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the bank faces the task of paying off about $20 billion in foreign-currency debt, about $3 billion of which comes due this year, with much-diminished access to capital markets.

Panama Furor Rumbles Into Second Week as Global Pressure Mounts (Bloomberg)
David Cameron will face lawmakers on Monday as he seeks to draw a line under the crisis stemming from information about the use of offshore tax havens leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. Iceland’s prime minister has resigned, Malta’s government faces a confidence vote and Argentine President Mauricio Macri promised to put his assets in a blind trust after he was linked to two companies listed in Panama.

Zillow’s defense: Exec was erasing p0rn, not evidence (NYP)
A Zillow executive at the center of a $2 billion lawsuit alleging the theft of trade secrets is claiming he wasn’t trying to destroy evidence when he tried to erase all the data on his home and work computers. Instead, Curt Beardsley’s destructive urge erupted in an effort to cover up his hard-core p0rn habit, Zillow claims in court papers. Zillow has much riding on that sordid defense ahead of a key hearing on Monday over whether Beardsley and his former boss at Move Inc., Errol Samuelson, destroyed evidence crucial to the legal battle between the real estate listings rivals.

Banker at Center of $81 Million Heist May Turn State Witness (Bloomberg)
The Philippine bank manager accused of helping to launder $81 million stolen from Bangladesh’s foreign reserves may turn state witness and aid the investigation into one of the largest bank heists in modern history. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch manager Maia Santos Deguito may seek protection under the Philippine government’s Witness Protection Program “at the right time,” her lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, said in an interview on Friday. “We invoked my client’s right against self-incrimination very sparingly at the last Senate hearing because we want to help the government get to the bottom of this,” Topacio said. “She isn’t part of the grand conspiracy.”

BlackRock Joins $46 Billion Japan Pullout (Bloomberg)
Losing the faith of foreigners would be a blow to the Japanese prime minister -- they’re the most active traders in a market Abe has held up as a litmus on his growth strategies. “Japan is back," and “Buy my Abenomics!” he proclaimed during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange in September 2013, when shares were marching to an eight-year high. Now about half of those gains are gone and BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, is among firms ending bullish calls on Japan equities.

Bill Gross sees one or two Fed rate hikes in 2016: Barron's (Reuters)
Bond manager Bill Gross predicts that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates once or twice in 2016, according to an interview in Barron's. Gross, who is the manager of the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund (JUCAX.O), told Barron's that he does not expect U.S. Treasury yields, which are currently around 1.7 percent, to change dramatically this year.

Obama to meet Fed Chair Yellen on Monday (Reuters)
President Barack Obama will meet with U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Monday to discuss the economy and Wall Street reform, the White House said on Sunday.

Bank Robbers Wrap Up Head-To-Toe In Aluminum Foil For Heist (HP)
Bank robbers in southern Brazil donned a highly unusual disguise for a heist. The duo covered themselves from head to toe in aluminum foil for the early Saturday morning raid on the Banco do Brasil branch in Praia Grande. Police said the two believed their improvised outfits would beat the bank’s alarm system and stop it from sounding. “They wanted to make sure the alarms didn’t detect their presence by using the aluminum foil,” a spokesman for the Santa Catarina state’s military police told Brazilian national newspaper O Globo. Astonishingly, the robbers’ plan appeared to work. But, as their cloaks didn’t allow Harry Potter-style invisibility, the hapless pair was still captured by the bank’s surveillance cameras.