Stocks ended the week lower after the U.S. government made tax rule changes that derailed what would have been the biggest pharmaceutical merger in history and sued to block another planned mega-merger in the oil & gas services space.

MACRO NEWS: The Federal Reserve released the minutes from the March FOMC meeting, during which a number of its members expressed that “a cautious approach to raising rates would be prudent” and that “raising the target range as soon as April would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate,” arguing that economic headwinds “were likely to subside only slowly.” In other central bank news, India’s central bank lowered its key interest rate 25 basis points to 6.5%, as widely expected, while the Reserve Bank of Australia held rates unchanged…

In the U.S., factory orders dropped 1.7% in February, as expected. Excluding transportation orders, factory orders were down 0.8%, versus expectations for them to be down 0.5%. Durable goods orders dropped 3% in February, versus expectations for them to be down 2.8%. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were down 1.3%, which was worse than the expectation for them to decline 1%.

The trade deficit widened 2.6% to $47.1B in February from a revised $45.9B in January. Markit’s services PMI bounced 1.6 points to 51.3 in March, which was a tick higher than the 51.2 reading that was expected. ISM’s non-manufacturing index rose 1.1 points to 54.5 in March, topping the consensus forecast for a 54.2 reading.

The JOLTS report showed job openings fell 159,000 to 5.45M in February, versus expectations for 5.49M openings. Consumer credit grew by $17.2B in February, versus the $14B that was expected. Wholesale sales declined 0.2% in February, while inventories fell 0.5%…

In Europe, unemployment in the shared currency area fell to its lowest level since 2011, coming in at 10.3% in February. Markit’s final look at the composite Purchasing Managers Index for the shared-currency zone rose to 53.1 in March, though that was below the initial reading of 53.7 for the month that was previously reported.

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