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Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The euro zone gets its only female central bank boss. Chrystalla Georghadji takes over as chief of Cyprus’ central bank (paywall). Her predecessor resigned last month following criticisms that he bungled the country’s international bailout. Georghadji faces the daunting task of restoring confidence in the banks and guiding Cyprus out of its mess.
JP Morgan’s profits fall… CEO Jamie Dimon has warned that fixed-income trading revenues could drop by 15% this quarter, prompting analysts to lower their earning estimates for banks across the board. Investors will be interested in whether expenses from legal proceedings continue to weigh on JP Morgan and how it plans to deal with rising interest rates and new regulations.
… while Wells Fargo’s rise. Wells Fargo’s earnings should take less of a hit than JP Morgan’s, as less of its business relies on investment banking and trading. Analysts predict a 5% annual increase in first-quarter earnings per share despite a 3% revenue drop, and will be watching for how the mortgage-heavy bank is faring in the wake of Fed “tapering.”
Finance ministers descend on DC. The IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings kick off in Washington, DC. High on the agenda will be international aid to Ukraine, China’s economic slowdown, and the Fed taper.
While you were sleeping
China’s inflation edged up to 2.4%… The year-on-year increase in consumer prices—which was higher than a 2% rise in February but still well below the government’s target of 3.5%—was driven by a rise in food costs. Producer prices fell by 2%, the 25th straight month of declines.
… and one of its central bankers warned against a stimulus. State-led growth drivers are never as effective as the market, said People’s Bank of China vice governor Yi Gang ahead of the IMF meeting. He said the government ought to be “very cautious” about introducing new stimulus measures.
The woman who rolled out Obamacare quit. US health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning, shortly after the tumultuous first enrollment period for the president’s signature Affordable Care Act. Federal budget chief Sylvia Mathews Burwell will be nominated to replace her.
Heartbleed was found in hard-to-reach places. The security bug affecting much of the internet is also present in networking equipment (paywall) from Cisco and Juniper Networks. Where websites just need a tweak to a couple of lines of code, the equipment might need to be replaced altogether.
SAC’s mega-payout was confirmed. The hedge fund’s $1.8 billion insider-trading guilty plea, entered last November, was approved by a federal judge. The settlement includes a $900 million fine, said to be a record high for an insider-trading case, and $616 million that has already been paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Philippines and Vietnam make nice on a disputed island. The countries’ navies said they will meet up for beer and volleyball, in a sign of cooperation due to growing fears over China’s ambitions in the South China Sea.
Quartz obsession interlude
Tim Fernholz on how the Heartbleed bug shows the weakness of a volunteer-run internet. “This software ‘is as close to a public good that you have,’ [Cloudflare CEO Matthew] Prince says. It’s open-source code managed by a foundation. While that has plenty of advantages, it also means the software is comparatively under-invested in by experts in the field and not as efficiently maintained—Prince describes it as a ‘spaghetti nest of code.’ It received less than $1 million in income from donations and consulting work last year.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Greece’s bond auction isn’t a big deal. It adds less than 1% to the country’s public debt and the investment is practically risk free.
GM’s biggest problem isn’t recalls—it’s China. The country accounts for some 60% of the carmaker’s free cash flow, which is a bit of a worry if the economy keeps slowing down.
We read too much about productivity, and don’t actually do enough about it (nevertheless, read this first).
Today’s newborns may never drive a car. Within 20 years, self-driving cars will be the norm.
Jamie Dimon is getting rich off failure. What doesn’t kill JP Morgan makes the CEO’s bank account stronger.
Surprising discoveries
France has banned work emails after 6pm. Europeans really know how to manage the work week.
For one day only, get your hands on Glass. Google will make the $1,500 wearable device available to the public in a flash sale, probably next week.
Stanford is now more selective than Harvard. It’s the latest sign in the shift from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.
Caffeine boosts your sporting abilities. And it won’t get you busted for substance abuse.
The new new thing in wearable computing is hearable computing. Smart earbuds could be a $5 billion industry by 2018.
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