The daily business briefing: April 4, 2016

1. Panama Papers leak provides look at tax havens used by rich and powerful

A team of journalists on Sunday published a trove of leaked documents describing how world leaders, celebrities, business tycoons, and criminals hide assets using offshore banks and shell companies. The investigators spent months digging through the so-called Panama Papers, 2.6 terabytes of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The data showed links to 72 current or former heads of state, including Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and Iceland's prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. Australia and New Zealand are investigating. Mossack Fonseca denied any wrongdoing.

BBC News Gizmodo

2. Alaska Airlines wins bidding war for Virgin America

Alaska Airlines announced Monday that it has agreed to buy Virgin America for about $4 billion. Alaska Airlines won a bidding war with JetBlue by offering $57 a share in cash — a 47 percent premium on Friday's closing price. Alaska Airlines said the deal, which would make it the fifth biggest U.S. airline, would help it expand its West Coast presence and "provide more choices for customers" and "increase competition." Virgin America shares jumped by 32 percent in pre-market trading.

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Business Insider The Wall Street Journal

3. Stocks get continued boost from Fed comments ahead of this week's trading

U.S. stock futures pointed to gains at the opening of the week's trading despite a decline in oil prices that came after a Saudi official threw fresh cold water on hopes for an oil-output cut. Analysts called this evidence that the Federal Reserve's reiteration of its plan to go slow on hiking interest rates was boosting investor confidence, and "decoupling" stock indexes from oil prices, after weeks of seeing the major indexes rising and falling in lock-step with the price of crude.

Reuters

4. Airline complaints hit 15-year high despite industry improvement

Airline passenger complaints jumped by 34 percent, to their highest level since 2000, even though more flights arrived on time in the past year, according to an annual report being released Monday. On-time arrivals, denied boardings, and mishandled baggage — the other three quality measures examined in the 2016 Airline Quality Rating report — showed slight improvement. "Everything is getting better, but they are still unhappy about the same things," says report co-author Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State.

The Wichita Eagle The Associated Press

5. Eurozone unemployment falls to 5-year low

Europe's unemployment rate declined in February to its lowest level since 2011, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat reported Monday. The fall from 10.4 percent to 10.3 percent was in line with economists' forecasts. The figures spotlighted vast differences among EU members, with Germany's rate at just 4.3 percent while Spain's was 20.4 percent. One analysts described the change as "movement sideways" that came as growth, prices, and economic confidence are declining.

Bloomberg