Stock market risks, Alibaba results, Russia’s cheesemakers

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

Share prices are “quite high”, said Janet Yellen, and “there are potential dangers there“. Investors appeared to be listening: Asian equities promptly sold down on opening this morning.

On top of concerns expressed by the Fed chairwoman, investors were digesting a rebound in oil prices, nearing $70 a barrel, and a rout in bond markets.

Ms Yellen described overall risks in the financial sector as “not elevated”. Her desire to communicate clearly did not extend to signalling when the long-anticipated rise in interest rates might come and a mixed bag of macroeconomic data including a drop in labour productivityhas muddied the waters for observers. (FT, Reuters)

In the news

Blackstone races for GE lending unit Three private equity firms are among some five bidders expected to make an offer for General Electric’s $16bn buyout-lending arm. Blackstone is joined by Ares and Apollo in the race for what is considered one of the crown jewels of the nearly $200bn-worth of assets at GE’s finance unit. (FT)

Netanyahu’s wafer-thin coalition The rightwing Likud party clinched a coalition with the far-right Jewish Home party less than two hours before the midnight deadline last night. This paves the way for Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth term as prime minister albeit with a slender majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. (FT)

Chinese make the Omaha pilgrimage The Chinese delegation doubled in number at Berkshire Hathaway’s 50th anniversary meeting and a lucky one hundred were granted an audience after Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger came offstage. (FT)

Lagarde wants to shake-up bankers’ pay IMF director Christine Lagarde said banks need toattack corporate culture that encourages excessive short-term risk-taking and shareholders need a bigger say on bonus-heavy pay structures. Her call came just as advisory firm ISS told JPMorgan shareholders they should reject Jamie Dimon’s pay package because the board awarded him a “large discretionary cash bonus… without a compelling rationale”. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Alibaba Is the honeymoon over ? The ecommerce group is expected to post slower revenue growth for the three months to March. Investors will be watching for any impact from efforts to fight counterfeits. Here is what else you can expect from the results. (FT, WSJ)

The UK The country goes to the polls and it’s going to be a nail-biter – even the betting markets are stumped. Here are the four critical contests to keep an eye on as results come out. (NYT, FT)

Malaysian opposition Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in February for sodomy but his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is standing for election today in his seat – an opposition stronghold. (Bloomberg)

Food for thought

Blessed are the Russian cheesemakers Companies such as Koza Nostra , a cheesemaker, are a rare bright spot in an economy ravaged by Western sanctions. The NYT looks at how local dairy farms are keeping shops stocked with Brie and ricotta through geopolitically difficult times.

Shale goes boom Oklahoma is one of the centres of the fracking revolution. It’s also home to earthquakes , a phenomenon rarely seen before energy companies began cracking fissures in the ground and pumping them full of thousands of gallons of water and chemicals. (FT)

Head for Hong Kong, HSBC Asia is an attractive alternative, says John Gapper, and it will do British politicians good to realise that they cannot be complacent about the UK’s role in the world. “It has some attractions as a global financial centre, but they are not infinite.” (FT)

Mass incarceration The US accounts for about 5 per cent of the world’s population but houses nearly 25 per cent of the world’s prison population. The number of people incarcerated in the US has increased 500 per cent over the past 40 years – mostly because more people are imprisoned for nonviolent offences – and nearly 40 per cent of them are African-American males. Jed Rakoff, a US district court judge, calls on the judiciary to speak out against “the evils of mass incarceration”. (NYRB)

Video of the day

The ‘digital single market’ The European Commission plans to reform everything from parcel delivery to telecoms and online retailing as part of its new sweeping initiative. Duncan Robinson explains what you need to know about the shake-up. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: A man walks past buildings at the central business district of Singapore. REUTERS/Nicky Loh.