P2JW090000-5-A00100-17FFFF5178F ***** WEDNESDAY,MARCH 31,2021~VOL. CCLXXVII NO.74 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 DJIA 33066.96 g 104.41 0.3% NASDAQ 13045.39 g 0.1% STOXX 600 430.65 À 0.7% 10-YR. TREAS. g 1/32 , yield 1.724% OIL $60.55 g $1.01 GOLD $1,683.90 g $28.30 EURO $1.1718 YEN 110.35 Home-Price Surge Hits 15-Year High Across the country, housing prices are climbing at the fastest pace in 15 FTCAntitrust What’s years because of a tight supply of homes. Two closely watched indicators News released Tuesday posted double-digit growth in house prices nationally. A2 Action Signals +14.3% Year-over-year change in the January Business&Finance home priceindexfor selected metroareas Boston Tougher Tone he FTC filed suit to Seattle Tblock Illumina’splanned +10.7 San $7.1 billion acquisition of Francisco Bid to block Illumina’s sition of Time Warner Inc., +11.0 +11.3 Grail, the latest signal that +8.9 which the government lost. the U.S. is entering a pe- $7.1 billion purchase of TheFTC—consisting cur- +9.5 Las Vegas Minneapolis +10.7 riod of more aggressive +10.0 Grail marks rare swipe rently of two Democratsand antitrust enforcement. A1 Detroit NewYork two Republicans—voted 4-0to Chicago at a 'vertical’ merger go forwardwith the suit, which Credit Suisse shareholders +8.5 Washington, comes amid expectations that arebracing forabig hit D.C. Denver BY BRENT KENDALL theBiden administration will from the fire sale of posi- +14.2 +15.8 AND JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF step up effortstopolicethe tions held by Archegos,a +9.6 marketplacefor potential setback that comes on the +9.2 Charlotte, N.C. WASHINGTON—TheFederal harms to competition. heels of Greensill’scollapse. A1 Trade Commission filed suit to FTC Acting Chairwoman Re- U.S. home prices arerising SanDiego Phoenix Atlanta block Illumina Inc.’splanned becca Kelly Slaughter,aDemo- at the fastest pacein15years, Dallas $7.1 billion acquisition of a crat, has advocated amoreag- reflecting howfiercely buyers +10.4 companydevelopinganearly- gressive stanceagainst vertical arecompeting foralimited stagecancer-detection test, in deals,and Tuesday’scase could supply of homes in nearly Tampa the latest signal that the U.S. is set the tone forfutureefforts. everypart of the country. A2 entering aperiod of moreag- Thesuit also comes two weeks gressiveantitrust enforcement. afterthe FTC signaled it is pre- Consumer confidence in Miami Thecase has added signifi- paring to take aharder line on the U.S. rose in March to its cancebecause Illumina’spro- drug-companymergers. highest level sincethe pan- U.S. home-pricegrowth ...as home prices rose ...promptedbyhigh demand, posed acquisition of Grail Inc. Grail, which wasoriginally demic started ayear ago. A2 reacheda15-year high throughout the nation... falling supply and low is avertical mergerofcompa- founded by Illumina, is among JPMorgan, Salesforce in January... interest rates. nies that don’t competehead- anumber of companies that and PricewaterhouseCoo- to-head. Most mergerlawsuits aretrying to develop blood- S&PCoreLogic Case-Shiller Median existing-home price, Existing homes persare among major com- involvechallenges to so-called based testsfor detecting can- National Home PriceIndex 12-month moving average available forsale panies looking to unload big horizontal deals that involve cers early.The tests, known as blocks of office space. B1 15% $300K 4million homes the combination of direct ri- liquid biopsies,look in blood vals. samplesfor genetic signs of Xiaomi became the lat- Therehas only been one liti- cancer. est tech company drawN to 11.2% 10 gatedchallengetoavertical Illumina develops and sells China’s burgeoning elec- 3 mergerinmorethan 40 years: next-generation sequencing ma- tric-vehicle market, pledg- 5 200K the JusticeDepartment’s2017 chines that runthese tests, and ing $10 billion over the next case against AT&T Inc.’sacqui- PleaseturntopageA4 decade to itsinitiative. B1 0 2 Major U.S. stock indexes fell, with the Dow industri- –5 100K als and S&P 500 both 1 BadFund Wagers shedding 0.3% and the –10 Nasdaq slipping 0.1%. B12 Deliveroo priced its IPO –15 0 0 Sting Credit Suisse at the bottom of its range, 2007 ’10 ’15 ’20 2001 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 2001 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 valuing the Amazon-backed food-delivery startup at Note:Existing-home pricedataare adjustedfor inflation. Sources: S&P DowIndices via St.Louis Fed(index); National Association of Realtors (home price, existing homes) BY MARGOT PATRICK likely to take from liquidating around $10.5 billion. B1 AND KOSAKU NARIOKA positionsatthe fund, runby Rivalgroups of inves- former Tiger Asia manager Bill tors arevying forthe right Credit Suisse Group AG Hwang. It is expected to say to back the expected recov- Chief ExecutiveThomas morethis week,according to a eryofHertz’s car-rental Gottstein made getting atight person familiar with the mat- businessand ease apath Behind Biden’sProgram: grip on risk taking one of his ter. In aprofitwarning Mon- outofbankruptcy. B2 firstmoves afterstarting the day, it said the losses could be joblast year.Itwasn’t enough “highly significant and mate- World-Wide to prevent two big blowouts: at rial” to itsfirst-quarter results. ABig BetonGovernment Archegos Capital Management Another banking victim and Greensill Capital. emergedTuesdaywhen the se- TheWhiteHouse briefed Bankshareholdersare brac- curities businessofMitsubishi lawmakersonaroughly $2 ingfor amultibillion-dollar hit UFJFinancial Group Inc.said it trillion infrastructureplan Plan reverses Reagan-era notion private sector can do a better job from afiresale of additional could lose $300 million from that also calls forraising positions held by hedgefund itsexposuretoaU.S.client, taxesoncompanies,ahead Archegos,and analystsdown- which it didn’t identify. The of Biden’sexpected unveil- BY JACOB M. SCHLESINGER AND ANDREW RESTUCCIA less than a month after a $1.9 trillion stimu- graded itsstock Tuesdayover bank is Japan’slargest, and the ing of the proposal. A1, A12 lus—seeks to give WashingtoN a new com- the reputational damage. trades took placeatone of its WASHINGTON—President Biden envisions mercial role in matters ranging from charg- Shares in the Swissbank fell overseas subsidiaries. Ships were again moving long-term federal spending claiming its big- ing stations for electric vehicles to child an additional 3.1% on Tuesday Thedivision “iscurrently through the Suez Canal but gest share of the American economy in de- care, and more responsibility for underwrit- as investorsestimatethe scale evaluatingthe extent of the po- estimates varied as to how long it would take to clear cades. He wants to pay for that program in ing education, incomes and higher-paying of the damage. ItsZurich- tential loss,” astatement from part by charging the highest-earning Ameri- jobs. traded shares arenow down Mitsubishi UFJSecurities said. abacklog of shipping cans the biggest tax rates they’ve faced in The administration has also laid the about 9% forthe year to date, It added itsestimated loss through the channel. A1, A8 years. groundwork for regulations aimed at em- even as crosstownrival UBS could change“depending on Witnesses testifying at The Biden economic team’s ambitions go powering labor unions, restricting big busi- GroupAG’sshares have risen PleaseturntopageA2 the trial of Derek Chauvin de- beyond size to scope. The centerpiece of PleaseturntopageA12 about16%. scribed watching and in some their program—a multitrillion-dollar pro- Credit Suisse hasn’t said ex- James Mackintosh: Archegos cases taking video of the en- posal to be rolled out starting Wednesday, Companies, high earners face tax rise............. A12 actly what sizeofalossitis flashes warning signs............ B1 counter between the ex-police officer and George Floyd. A3 TheU.S.and other Military countries expressed con- Aftershocks of Suez cerns about the WHO-led Chiefs mission to China to explore the origins of Covid-19. A10 Jam Global Shipping Resign Germanysaid it would re- In Brazil strict theuse of AstraZeneca’s Thebridgeofthe oil tanker jubilant. Watching a live feed Covid-19 vaccine forpeo- Navig8 Aronaldo erupted in of the Ever Given moveoff the The heads of ple under 60 following new cheers after Capt. Malik Nau- bank, Mr. Held knew that un- Brazil’s army, navy blood-clotting incidents. A10 shad told his crew to prepare corking the biggest traffic jam and air force Biden announced his first to weigh anchor midnight in global shipping in recent resigned on judicial nominees,using his yearscould take along time to Tuesday, rocking early choices to placeaN By Alistair MacDonald, resolve, and set off ascramble the government of emphasis on bringing more Costas Paris for berths and clear routes. President Jair racial and professional di- and Jennifer Smith “You see alot of bizarre S Bolsonaro, left, versity to federal courts. A4 thingsinshipping,” said Mr. PRES who is already Tuesdayand start their voyage Held, aformer ship’scaptain TED facing public fury TheJusticeDepartment out of the Suez Canal, where himself and co-owner of Held over the right- sincelast year has been inves- OCIA they had been stuck forsix BereederungsGmbH &CoKG, SS wing government’s tigating whether GOP Rep.Matt /A Gaetz had asexual relation- days by the grounding of the based in the north German inability to contain ship with a17-year-old girl and Ever Given. city of Haren. “But with this, PERES the fast-spreading Back at the German offices PleaseturntopageA8 coronavirus paid her to travel with him. A4 ALDO of JanHeld, whose family firm pandemic. A11 ER The Biden administra- has three different ships stuck Suez Canal traffic is slowly tion is suspending collec- at Suez,the mood wasn’t as resuming....................................... A8 tions on defaulted student loans held by more than one million borrowers. A3 Ohm Goal: VW’s Joke Name Change Backfires Died: G. Gordon Liddy, INSIDE 90, a mastermind of the iii Watergate burglary. A6 Thecompanysaysthe ‘k’ stays. It’s Volkswagen, not ‘Voltswagen’ CONTENTS Personal Journal A13-14 BY WILLIAM BOSTON dia and online news sites,was cations team on the defensive.