Expanding its coffee and breakfast empire, JAB has agreed to acquire Panera Bread (NASDAQ:PNRA) for $315/share in cash, valuing the deal at approximately $7.5B, including the assumption of approximately $340M of net debt. Following the close of the transaction, Panera will be privately held and continue to be operated independently by the company's management team. PNRA +13% premarket.

Economy

Today's minutes from the Fed's last meeting "are likely to be a non-event, considering the Street has had several weeks to react to the dot plot, statement and numerous comments from Fed officials since the meeting," said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. Investors are still likely to focus on any discussion about the central bank's plans to unwind its $4.5T balance sheet.

Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker's leak of confidential information may "very well be inadvertent," according to one of his former colleagues. "It could be something that is sort of a mind lapse," Dennis Lockhart told CNBC. Lacker tendered his resignation yesterday after admitting he had discussed market sensitive data with a Wall Street analyst in 2012.

Turkey's central bank has pushed interest rates to the upper reaches of its monetary framework. The bank's average interest rate is 11.47%, near the mathematical limit of its current funding mix. That leaves it almost maxed out should the lira come under renewed pressure before next Sunday's referendum, which could remodel Turkey's political landscape.

Greece and its bailout monitors are set to hold further talks in an effort to seal a deal on pension cuts and labor market reforms needed to unlock the next chunk of aid from Athens' €86B bailout program. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Tuesday night's negotiations in Brussels had "made good progress," but officials will continue discussions via teleconference later today.

Free movement of people from the EU to the U.K. could be extended after Brexit. "It will be necessary for there to be a period of time when businesses and governments are adjusting systems and so forth, depending on the nature of the deal," according to Prime Minister Theresa May. She also suggested Britain wouldn't finalize a trade deal with the union until after 2019.

A suspected Syrian government chemical attack has killed at least 83 people, including 25 children, as world leaders condemned the massacre in the northwestern province of Idlib. It "cannot be ignored by the civilized world," President Trump said in a statement. "President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a 'red line' against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing."

In its latest display of aggression, North Korea has fired a medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. "The U.S. has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment," Secretary of State Tillerson declared. The launch comes a day ahead of the summit between Trump and China's Xi in Mar-a-Lago, where they will discuss tackling Pyongyang's nuclear development program.

Stocks

Hike! Amazon has reached a $50M deal with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday night games next fall, marking a fivefold increase in the price tag Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) paid for the same number of matches last season. While CBS and NBC (NASDAQ:CMCSA) will each broadcast five games, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will stream the networks' coverage, including their ads (but will have rights to sell or use a handful of slots per event).

A small but growing set of companies is pulling advertising from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News (FOX, FOXA), in more fallout from revelations that host Bill O'Reilly and the network settled with five women over sexual harassment claims. BMW (OTCPK:BAMXF) and Allstate (NYSE:ALL) have joined the list, along with Mercedes-Benz, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), Constant Contact (NASDAQ:CTCT) and T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ:TROW).

Qualcomm has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the FTC in January that accuses the wireless chip maker of maintaining its market dominance through monopolistic behavior. "The complaint does not contain any factual allegations of anticompetitive harm to Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) rivals in the supply of modem chips," the company said in a 30-page filing.

Sony plans to expand marketing of its PlayStation VR headset to commercial customers, including entertainment facilities in Japan, WSJ reports. In February, Sony Interactive Entertainment (NYSE:SNE) said it had sold 915,000 units in its first four months, but analysts cautioned the number might not be enough to drive interest on the part of software developers.

New York state's highest court rejected Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) challenge on Tuesday to 381 search warrants to uncover suspected widespread Social Security disability fraud by its customers. The decision is a defeat for Internet privacy advocates, as well as many tech giants that supported Facebook's (FB) appeal.

Trying to draw a line under the business, Westinghouse replaced chairman Danny Roderick with Mamoru Hatazawa, chief of Toshiba's (OTCPK:TOSYY) nuclear division, two days before it filed for bankruptcy last week. Meanwhile, with Chinese investors on the horizon, the Trump administration is trying to find an American or allied buyer for Westinghouse, sources told Bloomberg.

Helium One is teaming up with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) to transport helium via airship from its project in Tanzania to port for shipping. The startup hopes the partnership will result in it supplying helium to Lockheed's entire fleet of hybrid airships, which will launch for commercial use in 2018.

Meanwhile, Lockheed has received Pentagon approval to begin production of the CH-53K King Stallion helicopter for the U.S. marines. The award includes 200 helicopters, each costing $87M on average and $105M including spare parts and certain service contracts. Lockheed's (LMT) $27B program also includes more than $6B in R&D costs.

Bringing China's largest foreign acquisition closer to the finish line, ChemChina has won EU antitrust approval for its $43B takeover of Syngenta (NYSE:SYT), a day after the U.S. cleared the deal. It's conditional on ChemChina's offer to divest "a significant part" of its Adama unit's pesticide business, a plant growth regulator and some of Syngenta’s pesticides, related assets and personnel. SYT +1.1% premarket.

GlaxoSmithKline is voluntarily recalling more than 593K Ventolin asthma inhalers from U.S. hospitals, pharmacies, retailers and wholesalers due to a defect that may cause them to deliver fewer doses than indicated. GSK said it had received an elevated number of product complaints about a bulging of the outside wrapper, suggesting a leak of the propellant that delivers the medicine.

The death of brick-and-mortar retail? Payless ShoeSource has filed for bankruptcy, marking the 10th filing by a national retail chain this year. As part of its restructuring, the company will close nearly 400 stores as it attempts to boost its balance sheet and restructure its debt load. Chains that compete with Payless include DSW (NYSE:DSW) and Caleres (NYSE:CAL).

Deutsche Bank, which slashed bonuses for a second straight year, saw several senior employees leave after giving out deferred compensation for previous years. Sources told Bloomberg that the lack of pay clarity may make it harder for the bank to retain talent, while extent of the impact will probably become visible this month. DB +1% premarket.

Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET was the deadline for companies to propose designs for President Trump's border wall with Mexico. The government won't identify companies until contracts are awarded around June 1 - and even then, only the winners - but some bidders released plans on their own, including big ideas like place for solar panels, tourist attractions, nuclear waste or ballistic concrete. Related tickers: USCR, KBR, MLM, FLR

Today's Markets

In Asia, Japan +0.3%. Hong Kong +0.6%. China +1.5%. India +0.2%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.1%. Paris +0.1%. Frankfurt -0.3%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow flat. S&P flat. Nasdaq -0.6%. Crude +0.9% to $51.50. Gold -0.3% to $1254.70.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bps to 2.36%

Today's Economic Calendar

7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
8:30 Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC minutes