Economy
China's manufacturing and services sectors showed signs of modest growth last month, though not enough to dispel fears about a downhill slide of the world's second largest economy. China's official manufacturing PMI came in at 50.1 in April, unchanged from March, in another sign the country is struggling to maintain momentum.

Although still remaining far below the BOJ's target, Japanese inflation ticked higher in March, with the country's core consumer price index showing 0.2% growth. Other data released today also offered several signs of encouragement, including a further tightening of Japan's labor market and a smaller-than-expected drop in household spending. On Thursday, the BOJ kept its massive easing program in place and pushed back its target date for reaching 2% inflation to the first half of fiscal 2016.

President Obama and Republican leaders intensified their push Thursday to win backing for a Pacific trade bill after lawmakers warned of insufficient support in the House. Yesterday, Obama hosted about 30 pro-business Democrats eyed as a source of votes for so-called fast-track legislation, which would guarantee a later vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP would cover 40% of the world's economy, including the U.S., Japan and ten other Pacific nations.

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Economic Council has approved a restructuring of Saudi Aramco that includes separating it from the oil ministry, Al Arabiya reports. The new Supreme Economic Council is a body formed by King Salman earlier this year to replace the Supreme Petroleum Council, which used to help set the kingdom's oil policy. On Wednesday, Salman named Saudi Aramco's CEO Khalid al-Falih as chairman of the national oil giant, another step in a major reshuffle at the OPEC kingpin.

With a surge in German yields and lessening fears of deflation in Europe, the euro rallied for a second session, climbing to a fresh two-month high against the dollar. Data this week suggesting the eurozone might be pulling out of deflation triggered a rise in Bund yields and shot the benchmark 10-year yield to 0.386%, up some 20 bps in two days. The euro has now clawed its way back from a 12-year low of $1.0457 in March, when the ECB launched its massive QE program. Euro +0.2% to $1.1244.

Stocks
Tesla Motors has unveiled Tesla Energy - a suite of batteries designed for households, businesses, and utilities - as it shifts into calling itself an energy innovation company in addition to being an automaker. "Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy on an extreme scale," Elon Musk declared. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will build the stationary energy storage systems using the same basic batteries it will produce for its vehicles at its gigafactory in Nevada.

Just two weeks after launching its landmark competition case against Google (GOOG, GOOGL), the European Commission is poised to widen its front against U.S. tech companies by initiating a separate investigation into a broader range of online platforms. The latest draft of the plan, seen by the FT, will encompass everything from online shopping to telecoms regulation and is set be approved by the commission next week. The "digital single market" probe could also bring in stricter rules to video services companies such as Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and messaging apps like WhatsApp (NASDAQ:FB) and Skype (NASDAQ:MSFT) which have become big rivals to traditional European media and telecoms companies.

Intel signed a standstill agreement earlier this year with Altera that expires on June 1, Reuters reports, after which Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) could launch a hostile bid. Sources state it's "unclear" whether Intel would make such a move (through a public tender offer) once the standstill expires. Reuters adds that Intel discussed a $58/share bid for Altera (NASDAQ:ALTR) in February, but lowered its offer after signing an NDA and poring through Altera's books. Bloomberg previously reported a $54/share offer. ALTR +4.5% premarket.

Merchants displeased with the high fees American Express charges them are permitted to steer customers toward less expensive cards without fearing retaliation from the credit card company, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn federal court said American Express (NYSE:AXP) is not allowed to stop stores from offering discounts, rebates or other incentives for using lower-fee cards - an activity known as steering.

Lloyds +2.1% premarket after first-quarter earnings beat analyst estimates and announcing it would exceed its lending profitability target. Although net profit declined 19% on a heavy charge related to its sale of TSB (OTCPK:TSBBY), underlying pretax profit rose 21% to £2.2B, reflecting an improved margin and lower losses for bad debts. Britain's Conservatives have also vowed to sell more Lloyds (NYSE:LYG) shares to the public if they retain power in next week's election.

Federal regulators will order operators of Boeing (NYSE:BA) 787 Dreamliners to shut down the plane's electrical power periodically after the company discovered a software error that could result in a total loss of power. The FAA says Boeing found during laboratory testing that the plane's power control units could shut down power generators if they were powered without interruption for 248 days. Boeing says a software update to fix the issue should be ready by Q4.

Although declining to comment on whether Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) made an approach for Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz stated her company could benefit if Microsoft (MSFT) or another rival bought the customer relationship management firm. "It would cause a lot of disruption in that market and so I would view that as something that would be helpful to us especially in the short or medium term, dependent on who it was," Catz said. Oracle has spent more than $60B on more than 100 acquisitions in its 38-year history but is "not known to throw around money," she added.

With Comcast's pursuit of Time Warner Cable dashed on the rocks, TWC and Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) have (separately) contacted Bright House Networks in the past week about an acquisition. With about 2M subscribers, Bright House is sixth-largest among cable MSOs. Charter had a deal to acquire Bright House a month ago, but it was contingent on a Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)-TWC combo and included a 30-day "good faith" period should the deal fail to close.

Syngenta +13.7% premarket after Bloomberg reported it had been approached by Monsanto (NYSE:MON) about a possible takeover. Reports last year had said the companies held preliminary talks with advisers about a combination before Syngenta (NYSE:SYT) management decided against negotiations. MON +4% premarket.

More than seven years after the global financial collapse, regulators and investors are still working through a mile-high pile of lawsuits and other civil actions, and it seems like the fines keep on coming. Since the crisis, banks and other institutions have paid more than $150B in fines, settlements and other penalties, according to a tally by FT. That compares with the roughly $700B in profits generated by U.S. banks between 2007 and 2014. So where have all the payments gone? The biggest have landed in the Justice Department, which has amassed some $50B. Other heavy collectors include the FHFA, Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA), HUD and the SEC. Among the banks paying the biggest amounts, BofA (NYSE:BAC) tops the list - with nearly $58B, followed by JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) ($31.3B), Citigroup (NYSE:C) ($12.8B) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) ($9.7B).

Thursday's key earnings
AIG +0.5% premarket after beat and new buyback. (link)
AVP -5.4% stung by forex conversions. (link)
COP little changed after a less than expected loss. (link)
FEYE +2.4% premarket following Q1 beat, strong guidance. (link)
DWA -2.1% premarket after missing earnings. (link)
EXPE +5.3% premarket on strong bookings. (link)
GILD +2.6% premarket after blowing out expectations. (link)
LNKD -18.2% premarket on weak guidance. (link)
RDS.A, RDS.B hardly moved after beating expectations (link)
TEVA -2.7% on flat revenues. (link)
TWC -1.5% after missing expectations. (link)
V -1.7% premarket on a decline in net income. (link)
XOM -0.5% after a smaller than expected drop in Q1 earnings. (link)

Today's Markets:

In Asia, Japan +0.1% to 19532. Hong Kong closed. China closed. India closed.
In Europe, at midday, London flat. Paris closed. Frankfurt closed.
Futures at 6:20: Dow +0.3%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq +0.2%. Crude -0.2% to $59.51. Gold -0.2% to $1179.80.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bps to 2.05%

Today's economic calendar:

Auto sales
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
10:00 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment

Notable earnings before today's open: AON, AXL, BCO, BERY, BPL, CBM, CBOE, CHTR, CLX, CPN, CTB, CVS, CVX, DUK, FE, GWR, HPY, ITT, KCG, LM, LPNT, MCO, MGI, MNTA, MOG.A, MOSY, MSG, NSP, NTLS, NWL, PEG, PNM, PNW, RUTH, RYAM, TDS, TRP, USM, VFC, WETF, WY, ZEUS

Notable earnings after today's close: AEC, BRK.B, VNR