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turned down for car loans andcredit cards. His credit ruined, helearned to live without debt andto pay for his family’s expenseswith cash.

Then last year, with the foreclosure behindhim, he found himself with a near-clean creditslate. The LeBlancs were able to purchase afour-bedroom ranch in St. Augustine Beach, Fla.,after borrowing just under $300,000 with a 30-year mortgage carrying a fixed interest rate ofabout 4.4% from Directors Financial Group, amortgage lender and broker.

More than five million American families losttheir homes to foreclosure between 2007—the

Please see HOMES page A14

The housing industry is slowlyseeing the return of buyers likeRick LeBlanc, who lost his Michi-gan home to foreclosure duringthe financial crisis but now quali-fies for a mortgage again.

Mr. LeBlanc, a 46-year-old residential-con-struction manager, fell behind on his $1,400monthly mortgage payments in 2007 after suf-fering a 20% pay cut. He had tried to sell theproperty before moving to Florida for a newjob. With no takers, he took on renters. But with$225,000 owed on the Highland, Mich., prop-erty, he and his wife eventually lost it to fore-closure in 2008.

In the years since, Mr. LeBlanc says he was

By AnnaMaria Andriotis,Laura Kusistoand Joe Light

CONTENTSArts in Review.......... D5Business News B2,3,5-9Global Finance............ C3Heard on the Street C10In the Markets........... C4Markets Dashboard C6

Opinion.................. A15-17Sports.............................. D6Style & Travel......... D2,3Technology................... B4U.S. News................. A2-6Weather Watch........ B9World News......... A8-13

s Copyright 2015 Dow Jones & Company.All Rights Reserved

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What’sNews

Syria’s Assad could bethreatened if an Iran nuclearpact opens theway to a broaderrapprochement over Tehran’sactivities in the region. A1Tsarnaevwas convicted ofall 30 charges in the BostonMarathon bombing. The jurywill now decide if he shouldget the death penalty. A3North Charleston, S.C.,leaders moved to tamp downracial tensions after the shoot-ing death of a unarmed blackman by awhite police officer.A4 A bystander’s video of theshooting has bolstered nation-wide calls to require all offi-cers to wear body cameras. A4 Iran sent two warships towaters off Yemen, where Teh-ran is aiding Shiite rebels fight-ing Saudi-backed forces. A8 China plans to build a gaspipeline from Iran to Pakistanunder a deal to be signed dur-ing Xi’s visit to Islamabad. A8 Iranian companies are try-ing to buy a Swiss refinery asTehran seeks outlets for itsoil if sanctions are lifted. A8 Islamic State releasedover 200 members of Iraq’sYazidi sect who had beenheld captive since August. A9 The head of France’s far-right National Front split withher father, the party’s founder,over his Holocaust remarks.A12An Afghan soldier openedfire on U.S. troops in easternAfghanistan, killing one Amer-ican and wounding several. A9 The U.S. Army expanded aprogram that encourages im-migrants with certain languageand medical skills to enlist. A3

Shell is buying BG in a $70billion deal, an aggressive

move in the competition to bethe world’s dominant supplierof liquefied natural gas. B1, B8Mylan proposed to buy ri-val Perrigo in a $29 billiondeal that would create oneof the world’s largest sellersof low-price medicines. B1M&A volume this year is ontrack to be the second-highestever, helped by increasedconfidence in the economyand low interest rates. A1 Switzerland sold 10-yearbonds that give investors ayield below 0%, while Mex-ico issued a 100-year bonddenominated in euros. A1 The Fed released Marchmeeting minutes that showedofficials divided on whetherto raise rates in June. A2 The Dow added 27.09points to 17902.51 as investorslooked past the Fed minutesahead of earnings news. C4 European stocks climbedto a 15-year high as investorsbet Shell’s deal will spark awave of energy mergers. C4 U.S. oil prices slid 6.6% to$50.42 a barrel, triggered bya report that crude supplieshave soared to a record. C1 Zynga founderMark Pincusis taking back the reins at themobile-games firm, endingDonMattrick’s stint as CEO. B1A Gilead drug priced at$1,000 per pill causedMedic-aid spending on hepatitis Ctreatments to soar last year. B1Alcoa swung to a first-quar-ter profit on a turnaround inits smelting division. B2

Business&Finance

World-Wide

RisingOptimismFuelsDealRebound

more than a simple structure. Itstands for the currency and withthat the future and hopes ofover 300 million people,” theletter said.

No doubt: The euro symbolneeds a bailout.

Like euroskeptics who scornthe common currency, some lo-cals are fed up with the statue.

“I think we should just tear itdown,” says Oliver Reese, artis-

Please see EURO page A14

Euro sculpture

North Charleston City Leaders Move to Tamp Down Racial Tensions

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FALLOUT: Mayor Keith Summey, left, with Police Chief Eddie Driggers, said Officer Michael Slager had been fired, a day after he was charged withmurder in the shooting of Walter Scott following a routine traffic stop. The mayor said more body cameras had been ordered for officers. A4

WhatGolf Needs:A Rivalry

SPORTS | D6

FRANKFURT—The euro is asymbol of European unity. Butthe euro symbol is falling apartand it will cost a lot of euros tofix.

In the center of the euro-zone’s financial capital stands a46-foot-tall icon of the commoncurrency. And like the currencyitself, the sculpture faces a cri-sis.

Light bulbs need to be re-placed inside the symbol, whichconsists of a giant blue “€”spangled with 12 yellow stars.Bumper stickers mar its exterior.Vandals recently painted onestar red.

The euro-statue’s troubles areeven upsetting tourists. An Aus-trian visitor to Frankfurt re-cently wrote an open letter tothe mayor in a local newspapersaying he was “appalled” at the“miserable” condition of thesculpture. “The sculpture is

BY TODD BUELL

Frankfurt’s Shabby Euro SculptureIs in Need of a Bailout

i i i

Some say statue, marred by bumper stickersand vandals, is spent; seeking sponsors

Until Wednesday, no countryhad ever sold 10-year debt thatgives investors a yield of below0%. And no country had ever is-sued a 100-year bond denomi-nated in euros.

But in the latest stark sign ofhow easy the era of easy moneyhas become, Switzerland onWednesday sold 10-year bondsthat investors are actually pay-ing to hold, while Mexico linedup a rare transaction to borroweuros it promised to repay acentury from now—at a yield of4.2%.

The two extraordinary mile-stones reflect Europe’s extraor-dinary environment.

Even as the U.S. Federal Re-serve prepares to raise interestrates, the European Central Bankis forcefully driving them down.The Swiss National Bank, eagerto keep its currency from soar-ing too far above its eurozoneneighbors’, has itself shoved in-terest rates below zero.

The consequence is a strangecollection of monetary phenom-ena: The ECB has begun charg-ing commercial banks to keepmoney on deposit. Denmark’scentral bank has furiouslyprinted kroner to mitigate aflood of capital into the country.Even Spain, which once lookedon the cusp of fiscal collapse, isable to sell short-term Treasurybills that give investors back lessprincipal than they started with.

These plummeting yields—which mean higher bond

Please see BONDS page A6

By Emese Barthain Frankfurt, ChiaraAlbanese in Londonand Anthony Harrup

in Mexico City

Fed split on June rate move,minutes show................................. A2

AFTER FORECLOSURES,BUYERS TRYAGAIN

Somewho lost homes in early part of crisis return as credit scores improve

Takeovers are booming ascompanies gain more confidenceabout the economy, use stock-piles of cash to reach for futuregrowth and get boosts from lowinterest rates and the surgingstock market.

Wednesday’s bid by Mylan NVof $28.9 billion for rival drugmaker Perrigo Co. increased thecombined value of all takeoversannounced in 2015 to more than$1 trillion, according to re-searcher Dealogic. The total alsoincludes Royal Dutch Shell PLC’sdeal, first reported Tuesday byThe Wall Street Journal, to buyBG Group PLC for about $70 bil-lion, creating the world’s largestindependent producer of lique-fied natural gas.

At the current pace, mergers-and-acquisitions volume for thefull year would exceed $3.7 tril-lion, making it the second-big-gest year in history after 2007.Among the deals proposed orannounced so far this year, 15are valued at more than $10 bil-lion, the highest such number onrecord, says Dealogic.

The two latest megadeals un-derscore the forces behind theM&A surge. Seven years afterthe financial crisis hit, the after-effects on companies and mar-kets have largely faded, bolster-ing the boardroom confidencethat is a crucial ingredient fordeal-making.

At the same time, rock-bot-Please see DEALS page A6

By Dana Cimilluca,DanaMattioli

and Shayndi Raice

New EraIn Bonds:Zero Yield,Or Less

BEIRUT—Like Israel and SaudiArabia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has his own reasons to beworried about Iran’s frameworknuclear agreement with the U.S.and other world powers.

On the face of it, the prospect ofa final accord that would lift some

international sanctions againstIran is good news for Mr. Assadand his regime, which depend onbillions of dollars in support fromTehran. Add to that the direct andsubstantial military support Mr.Assad receives from Iran’s mostpowerful proxy force in the region,the Lebanese Shiitemilitia Hezbol-lah.

But prospects look dimmer forMr. Assad if a nuclear agreementopens the door to a broader rap-prochement with Iran over its rolein Syria and what the Obama ad-ministration views as the IslamicRepublic’s other destabilizing ac-

tivities in the region, according todiplomats and analysts.

Iran and Russia, which also pro-vides Mr. Assad with significantdiplomatic, political and militarysupport, are willing to envision asolution to the four-year-old con-flict in Syria that eventually easeshim out of power while safeguard-ing their own strategic interests inthe country, according to peoplefamiliar with details of currentSyria diplomacy.

Publicly, Iran and Russia havelong maintained that it is up toSyrians to decide the fate of Mr.Assad. But in recent days, there

have been hints that they mightneed to consider alternative sce-narios.

“Everyone realizes that the situ-ation has changed a lot and now in-volves evenmore angles and com-plexities,” Russian ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov told report-ers in Moscow on Monday.

The Syrian ForeignMinistry is-sued a terse statement last weekwelcoming the framework deal be-tween Iran and the U.S. and prais-

Please see ASSAD page A8

BY SAM DAGHER

Iran Pact Threatens AssadAsTehran focuses onfinalizing agreement tolift sanctions, Syrianleader risks losing key ally

GuiltyVerdict inBoston Bombing

JUDGMENT: A jury convictedDzhokhar Tsarnaev on 30 countsand will weigh the death penalty. A3

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Diverging paths for BG andShell CEOs......................................... B1

Mylan’s $29 billion offer............ B1 Iran sends warships to waters

off Yemen......................................... A8

DJIA 17902.51 À 27.09 0.2% NASDAQ 4950.82 À 0.8% NIKKEI 19789.81 À 0.8% STOXX600 404.66 À 0.1% 10-YR. TREAS. g 1/32 , yield 1.895% OIL $50.42 g $3.56 GOLD $1,203.10 g $7.50 EURO $1.0782 YEN 120.13

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Time Keeper?The Apple Watch’s functions,fashions and flawsPERSONAL JOURNAL | D1

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