The Traderszone Network

The euro’s slide toward parity with the dollar will provide a much-needed boost for European companies this year and force U.S. rivals to adapt their businesses or risk losing market share. While currency hedging arrangements mean the benefits may not be seen straight away, the currency’s weakness has already cheered European chief executives by making their products cheaper overseas and lifting the value of dollar-based sales.

The family of a woman who died in a crash later blamed on a faulty General Motors Co (GM.N) ignition switch has settled a civil lawsuit against the automaker, ending litigation that helped bring to light the company’s decade-long delay in recalling millions of defective vehicles. Lawyers for the parents of Brooke Melton disclosed the settlement on Friday, but did not reveal details of the agreement. GM declined to comment on Friday. The Melton family was represented by Lance Cooper of the Cooper Firm of Marietta, Georgia, and the Beasley Allen firm of Montgomery, Alabama.

On Thursday we learned that becoming a millionaire is surprisingly easy. All you need to do is raise some startup capital, find a dying company whose stock is still fairly liquid, then loan the company money on the condition they allow you to convert the receivable into common at a discount to where it trades in the market. Somehow that’s legal even if, as Bloomberg noted (completely missing the irony of course), it’s too “sketchy” for Wall Street investment banks. 

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Submitted by Emad Mostaque via ECStrat.com,

There is a possibility of a nuclear deal being agreed between the P5 + 1 nations and Iran next Friday, 20th March. This may be the precursor for energy stocks to recouple to downside and for spending cuts to spread from capex to dividends for majors.

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Whether it’s subprime auto lending, Janet Yellen’s “stretched” biotech sector, or corporate credit, bubbles abound in today’s fragile market and like Mark Cuban, Prem Watsa thinks the valuations investors are placing on private tech companies are simply ludicrous. But the insanity isn’t confined to private companies, Canada’s Warren Buffett says. “Speculation” is rampant in publicly traded shares as well. 

From Fairfax Financial’s shareholder letter: 

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It may be a place for fun and games, but “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer is not amused with this stock’s prospects

Over the past five years, investor money is increasingly moving towards consumer software and later-stage life science ventures, a trend that could help develop new treatments.