• The Federal Reserve will likely announce this week that quantitative easing, its market-friendly bond-buying program, will end this month. But the Fed’s $4 trillion in holdings that it acquired during the program will keep rates unusually low for a long time.
(Boris Roessler, European Pressphoto Agency)
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• Twenty-five European banks failed the European Central Bank’s stress tests, but the majority passed. The stress tests are designed to see if the banks would fail under various adverse financial conditions. Nine Italian banks failed, sending that country’s stocks reeling.
• German business confidence fell to its lowest level in almost two years. It found “almost no bright spots” in German industry at present, as Europe’s largest economy teeters on the edge of recession.
• CVS and Rite Aid have rejected ApplePay because they’re part of a consortium developing a rival system.
• Valeant’s dogged pursuit of Allergan continues: Valeant says it’s willing to raise its price to $200 a share to acquire its fellow pharmaceutical company.
• The average price of regular gasoline slid to the lowest level in almost four years, dropping 18.2 cents in the two weeks that ended Friday to $3.08 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.
• Your cat thinks you’re a huge, unpredictable ape. He’s got a point.
