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Good morning. Credit Suisse in the hot seat, an SEC risk review and the ECB decision. Here's what's moving markets.

Risk Mismanagement

The usually behind-the-scenes functions of risk controls have been thrust into the limelight after Credit Suisse was left holding the bag on two financial catastrophes in just a month -- Hwang's Archegos and the collapse of Greensill Capital. Late yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the Zurich bank had given its swaps salesman to Archegos the task of overseeing risk-taking in its prime brokerage. The lender's subsequent losses have left investors puzzling over whether it has sufficient checks in place. In more positive news, Credit Suisse just reported a 1Q net loss that was narrower than feared. 

Lessons

U.S. regulators are considering tougher disclosure requirements for investment firms in response to this year's implosion of Archegos Capital Management and trading gyrations in GameStop. SEC officials are exploring how to increase transparency for the types of derivative bets that sank Archegos, the family office of billionaire trader Bill Hwang, according to people familiar with the matter. This morning, Switzerland's financial regulator announced enforcement proceedings against the bank over Archegos. Among issues the SEC is evaluating are whether position filings should include derivatives and shorts, and if firms should submit such filings more frequently than every three months.

ECB Day

No changes to interest rates, asset-purchase programs or bank loans are expected just yet. Following today's monetary policy decisions, ECB President Christine Lagarde will be pressured to reveal how much longer the euro area will need intensified support. She'll likely say that the ECB intends to continue buying bonds at an accelerated pace through June to support financing conditions and help the economy as the pandemic persists. Her views on monetary stimulus in the second half are likely to be much vaguer, despite some of her colleagues publicly starting that debate.

More Restrictions

While France and Greece prepare to ease some pandemic-related curbs in early May, a controversial lockdown law just got backing in the lower house of Germany's parliament. The law -- which expires at the end of June -- triggers tighter restrictions in virus hotspots, including nighttime curfews and closing schools and non-essential stores. Merkel moved to effectively override regional authorities because the renewed surge in infections threatens to overwhelm some intensive-care units. The number of Covid-19 patients in ICUs has been rising steadily since mid-March, and is close to 5,000, not far from a peak of 5,745 scaled at the beginning of January. 

Coming Up…

The rally in U.S. shares was set to extend to European stocks ahead of today's ECB rate decision. Credit Suisse is far from the only earnings release to watch today, with Nestle, Hermes, Pernod Ricard, Volvo, Renault, Orange and Polish videogame maker CD Projekt all reporting in Europe. In the U.S., Intel is the highlight along with Snap, Union Pacific, Danaher, Blackstone, American Airlines and many more. U.S. existing home sales are among the big data releases, while President Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual climate summit for Earth Day.

What We've Been Reading

This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. 

And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning

A jump in small-cap stocks led U.S. markets higher on Wednesday, snapping what some commentators had suggested was an ominous two-day slide. The fact that a mere 1-point-something percent decline in the S&P 500 had raised alarm bells says a lot about the state of markets today, with investors seemingly primed to expect stocks to only go up. But looking under the hood, a gauge of market breadth in small-caps -- traditionally those most sensitive to economic growth -- suggests concerns should remain. The percentage of Russell 2000 Index members trading above their 50-day moving average has fallen below 40%, compared to about 80% for the large-cap S&P 500, a smidgen off a record gap, according to data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1995. That comes courtesy of Sundial Capital Research founder Jason Goepfert who noted to clients that while it's too early to tell whether this can morph into something larger, previous instances have led to subsequent pressure on U.S. equities. A narrowing in breadth often accompanies market tops as gains are driven by fewer and fewer stocks. Investors would do well to look for any contagion from small-caps to broader market indexes.

Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo.

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