Today in business: 5 things you need to know

1. TESLA PREDICTS FIRST QUARTERLY PROFIT

Tesla Motors shares shot up by 19 percent early Monday after the electric-car maker announced that it expected to make its first quarterly profit. The company, which went public in 2010, attributed the surprise to stronger-than-expected sales of its luxury Model S sedans. Tesla had expected to sell 4,500 in the quarter, but wound up delivering 4,750. "There have been many car startups over the past several decades, but profitability is what makes a company real," Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said. "Tesla is here to stay and keep fighting for the electric car revolution." [Wall Street Journal]

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2. MANUFACTURING GROWTH SLOWS

U.S. stocks fell slightly from the record highs set last week, after a survey released Monday suggested that U.S. manufacturing had slowed unexpectedly in March. The Institute for Supply Management's monthly index tracks purchases at American factories and other facilities, providing a snapshot of how busy U.S. manufacturers are. The drop — to 51.3 percent from 54.2 percent in February — was larger than forecast, suggesting that some companies were holding back as government spending cuts took effect in March. Still, the reading was strong enough to indicate a fourth straight month of growth in production and new orders, as anything above 50 percent indicates expansion. [CNN]

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3. TECH GIANTS PLAY APRIL FOOLS PRANKS

Getting in on the fun of April Fools' Day, Twitter announced Sunday that it was launching a free consonant-only microblogging service — "Twttr" — and letting users "keep your vowels" for $5 a month. The company announced the joke by tweeting, "Trd th nw Twttr yt? Mr tm fr mr twts!" (Translation: Tried the new Twttr yet? More time for more tweets). Google also got in on the fun, announcing that it was shutting down YouTube and selecting the best viral video ever. "Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as a video with 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck," YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar said. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune]

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4. INDIA'S TOP COURT REJECTS KEY DRUG PATENT

India's Supreme Court on Monday rejected Swiss drug-maker Novartis' patent application for Gleevec, a breakthrough cancer drug. The landmark decision will allow other companies, many of them in India, to continue making cheaper copycat versions of Gleevec and other medicines that are being distributed around the world. Gleevec, which has a miraculous effect on some forms of leukemia, costs up to $70,000 a year, but Indian generic versions cost about $2,500 a year. [New York Times]

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5. STOCKMAN PREDICTS MASSIVE CRASH

David Stockman, once Ronald Reagan's budget director, predicted in a Sunday New York Times op-ed article that the Federal Reserve's easy money policies, aimed at stimulating the economy and speeding the recovery, have set the stage for a devastating crash a few years from now. The alarming warning has gone viral ahead of the April 2 release of Stockman's book, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. "When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse," Stockman said. "If this sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out in cash, it is." Economist Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, dismissed Stockman as a "cranky old man" who offers no evidence for his predictions. [MarketWatch, New York Times]