“I ‘m convinced that everything that’s important in investing is counterintuitive, and everything that’s obvious is wrong” — Charlie Munger

1. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has kept its key interest rate unchanged — BOJ kept rate at 0.1% and left unchanged its program of expanding the monetary base by ¥60-70T ($580-680B) a year. The BOJ refrained from further easing and maintained its optimism about the economy despite concerns about the impact of a rise in sales tax that took effect last week.
2. Another Coal Company filed for Bankruptcy — James River Coal has filed for Chapter 11 with $818.7M in debt after missing an interest payment on $275M of senior notes. As with Patriot Coal (OTC:PATCA), which filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2012, James River Coal (JRCC) has suffered from falling coal demand due to gas prices plunging because of the shale boom.
3. Greece returns to bond markets — MarketWatch, struggling Greece is scheduled to tap the international capital markets in a long-term bond sale as soon as Wednesday after an exile from the financial community since 2010. The 10-year yield fell below the 6% level late last week. Although Greece’s bond is almost 450 basis points higher than the German equivalent, it’s a major improvement from the +30% levels in early 2012.
4. Federal Regulators told eight largest U.S. banks to increase reserves — 8 largest banks were told to increase another $68B in loss-absorbing capital after U.S. regulators voted to raise the “leverage ratio” to 5-6% of their total assets, well above the Basel III standard of 3%. The banks affected include JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS). The eight firms have until January 1, 2018 to comply with the new rule.
5. Chinese exports tumbled 6.6% on year in March — Bloomberg, China ‘s overseas shipments declined 6.6 percent from a year earlier, the customs administration said in Beijing. The drop attributed to distortions from inflated data in early 2013. Imports fell 11.3 percent, in part on falling commodity prices, leaving a trade surplus of $7.71 billion. Imports slumped a worse-than-expected 11.3%, while the trade balance swung to a surplus of $7.71B from a deficit of $22.98B.
6. Japan’s Cabinet has approved a controversial plan to reinstate nuclear energy — Japan government plans to reinstate nuclear energy an important source of electricity, although there are doubts about how big a role atomic power will be able to play. The country’s nuclear plants were shut following the Fukushima disaster over three years ago, which has caused the country to significantly increase its energy imports.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: