European Midday Briefing : U.S. Bank Earnings In -2-

Yields on U.S. Treasurys, which fall when bond prices rise, have dropped sharply since the run on SVB, but their decline has occurred over two distinct phases.

Retail Report to Show Demand as Consumers Faced Banking Troubles, Rising Rates

A report on U.S. retail sales will gauge consumers' willingness to spend at stores, restaurants and online in March, amid turmoil in the banking sector, rising interest rates and easing hiring.

Households pulled back on retail shopping and dining out in February after spending strongly in a warmer-than-usual January. Consumers benefited recently from lower gasoline prices and a broad cooling in inflation. Prices rose at the slowest rate in nearly two years in March. But underlying cost pressures, outside of food and energy, rose. That could keep the Federal Reserve in position to keep raising interest rates at its next meeting.

U.S. Buyback Tax Could Hit More Foreign Firms Than First Expected

The U.S.'s new tax on stock buybacks has created a potential pain point for foreign companies: Those with stateside subsidiaries may find they are subject to the 1% levy on share repurchases.

As initially written, the 1% tax on buybacks, which went into effect Jan. 1, would hit foreign companies in limited circumstances. Guidance from the government released in late December, however, changed expectations about the potential impact on foreign companies, stirring comment letters from businesses including Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S and groups representing multinational companies and global manufacturers.

BOJ Gov Tells G-20 That Japan Will Keep Easing Monetary Policy

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said he told the Group of 20 forum that the bank needs to maintain its monetary policy easing stance, with inflation expected to slow soon.

Japan's consumer inflation, which was at around 3% in February, is expected to fall below the bank's 2% target toward the latter half of this fiscal year, which started in April, Mr. Ueda said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Singapore's Central Bank Unexpectedly Keeps Monetary Policy Unchanged

SINGAPORE-Singapore's central bank unexpectedly kept its monetary policy stance unchanged, citing cooling core inflation and the dimming economic growth prospects of the export-dependent nation.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore will maintain the prevailing rate of appreciation of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate policy band, as the current path of appreciation is sufficiently tight and appropriate for achieving medium-term price stability, it said in a statement Friday.

Why the weakness in U.S. bank stocks since the collapse of SVB is a worrisome sign on eve of bank earnings

The U.S. corporate earnings reporting season begins this week with a flurry of major U.S. banks set to report their first quarterly performance since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank last month.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and BlackRock will be among the large financial institutions posting their earnings before markets open on Friday.

Fed issued $139.5 billion in emergency loans to banks in latest week, down more than 50% from mid-March

The numbers: Cash-strapped banks borrowed $139.5 billion in emergency lending from the Federal Reserve in the week ended April 12, according to data released by the central bank Thursday. That was down from $148.7 billion last week and $154 billion two weeks ago. It's also down from a peak of $300 billion in mid-March, when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed.

Key details: Banks borrowed $67.6 billion from the Fed using the traditional "discount window" in the week ended April 12, compared with $69.7 in the prior week.

Pentagon Looking Into How Accused Leaker Accessed Top Secret Documents

WASHINGTON-Among the most puzzling questions to emerge since the arrest of a young Massachusetts man in connection with the leak of purported highly classified intelligence is how a junior airman would have gained access to some of the U.S. government's most closely guarded documents.

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested Jack Teixeira in Dighton, Mass., for the suspected unauthorized removal, handling and distribution of secret information, officials said. Mr. Teixeira, 21 years old, holds the rank of airman first class in an intelligence unit of the Massachusetts Air National Guard and is a junior Air Force communications specialist, according to his service record. His job title-cyber transport systems journeyman-gives no obvious hint why he would have access to the types of files that were leaked. He joined the Air Force National Guard in September 2019, according to his service record. Mr. Teixeira is expected to appear Friday in federal court in Massachusetts.

Despite Leak, U.S. and Allies Will Keep Sharing Intelligence

Deepening intelligence ties between the U.S. and its allies in an increasingly adversarial world mean that Washington's foreign partners see little choice but to shake off the apparent leak of classified documents and won't curtail cooperation.

Among the dozens of purportedly secret documents posted online are details of U.S. and allied militaries, politics and strategic weak points. They include information and analysis concerning Ukraine's armed forces as they prepare for an offensive against Russian forces occupying large parts of the country. The photographed pages also include what is presented as confidential information about Israel, South Korea, Egypt and other countries. Much of the information, the papers say, was obtained by U.S. intelligence agencies through intercepts of foreign communications.

Ireland Marks Biden 'Homecoming' More Than 150 Years After His Ancestors Fled

DUBLIN-President Biden often turns to Irish poets to convey his deepest emotions. In Ireland this week as he reflected on the visit, he spoke more plainly: "It feels wonderful. Feels like I'm coming home."

The sentiment was mutual. Mr. Biden has the deepest Irish family roots of any American president since John F. Kennedy, and he was welcomed here as the ultimate local boy made good. Crowds lined the streets in County Louth-where he traces one branch of his ancestors-and in Dublin. Distant cousins cheered him in a pub. At one stop, a pipe band played an original song called "A Biden Return." The widow of a favorite poet attended his address to parliament.

Supreme Court Faces Swift New Abortion Test With Mifepristone Case

WASHINGTON-The Biden administration was expected as soon as Friday to ask the Supreme Court to restore full access to the abortion pill mifepristone after lower courts restricted use of the medication, which the Food and Drug Administration first approved in 2000 and since 2016 relaxed special regulations for its prescription.

A late Wednesday order from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rolled back mifepristone access to the pre-2016 regulations, which limited its use to women pregnant for seven or fewer weeks, required three in-person doctor visits to receive and barred sending to patients through the mail.

Brazilian President Lula Seeks Deeper Trade Ties in China Visit

SÃO PAULO-Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday-a state visit that officials said would tackle topics including satellites to monitor the Amazon rainforest and a proposal for ending the war in Ukraine.

Mr. da Silva's trip, his fourth foreign visit in as many months as Brazil's new president, comes as the standard-bearer of Latin America's left seeks to boost his country's influence abroad after a period of relative isolation under his nationalist predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-14-23 0605ET