Women Rule The Road Documentaries Get Hollywood Treatment PERSONAL JOURNAL | D1 BUSINESS & TECH. | B1 TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016 ~ VOL. CCLXVII NO. 115 ****** DJIA 17710.71 À 175.39 1.0% NASDAQ 4775.46 À 1.2% STOXX 600 334.73 À 0.01% 10-YR. TREAS. g 14/32 , yield 1.752% OIL $47.72 À $1.51 GOLD $1,273.40 À $1.50 Obama Lauds Courage of Police Officers Who Stood Tall What’s News Business & Finance B erkshire disclosed that it had invested $1 billion in Apple stock earlier this year, boosting the tech giant’s market value by more than $18 billion. A1 Many big oil firms last year continued to reward executives for finding and extracting more crude. C1 Energy shares fueled a broad rally as oil prices hit a 2016 high. The Dow rose 175.39 points to 17710.71. C4 Facebook is now selling video ads on behalf of other companies, intensifying competition with Google. B1 China’s central bank is again facing the pressure of a weaker yuan and the prospect of currency outflows. C1 Valeant said it would expand discounts for two of its heart drugs following heavy scrutiny over pricing. B3 Credit Suisse plans to issue bonds that buffer it against risks including rogue trading and accounting errors. C1 World-Wide The Supreme Court sent back to lower courts suits by religious employers opposed to the health-care law’s contraception requirements. A1 The Second Amendment protects the right to buy and sell firearms, as well as keep and bear them, a federal appeals court ruled. A3 An Amtrak engineer lost track of where he was on the busy Northeast Corridor before a deadly crash, investigators have concluded. A3 The Afghan government sealed off the center of Kabul as thousands protested a power-line plan that would bypass a central province. A20 The U.S. and other nations pledged to consider training and arming the Libyan government as it struggles to stop Islamic State. A20 Brazil’s acting president said his main priorities would be creating jobs and unifying the country. A6 The president-elect of the Philippines vowed to crack down on a range of antisocial behavior and restore the death penalty. A15 India’s ruling BJP appeared poised to score important gains in state legislative elections. A15 A study on the effects of allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the military found there would be little to no impact. A5 CONTENTS Business News. B2-3 CFO Journal............. B5 Crossword................. B6 Election 2016......... A4 Global Finance........ C3 Health & Wellness.. D2-4 Heard on Street.... C8 In the Markets....... C4 Opinion.............. A17-19 Sports.......................... D6 U.S. News......... A2-3,5 Weather..................... B6 World News A6,15-16,20 > s Copyright 2016 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved YEN 109.03 Top Court Sidesteps Health Ruling prepares Berkshire for a future without him at the helm. In an email Monday, Mr. Buffett didn’t say whether Mr. Combs or Mr. Weschler made the call. But he said they each make investment decisions without consulting him first. The Apple position gives Berkshire a second sizable stake in a technology company. Its first was Mr. Buffett’s $11 billion Please see APPLE page A5 WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court, unable to resolve the dispute between religious employers and the Obama administration over contraception coverage in the government’s health-care law, sent the matter back to lower courts to seek a compromise between the parties. The move Monday prolongs the four-year fight over whether the groups must offer contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It also highlights how Justice Antonin Scalia’s February death has hobbled the ability of the court’s eight remaining members to resolve the most contentious cases. In a brief, unsigned opinion that Chief Justice John Roberts summarized from the bench, the justices returned the contraception issue to the lower courts to review whether recent movement in the parties’ positions had paved the way to possible compromise. Days after the justices first heard arguments in the case in March the court issued an extraordinary order seeking an agreement between the sides. The government and its opponents “should be afforded an opportunity to arrive at an approach going forward that acPlease see COURT page A2 Cook visits China as Apple looks to boost prospects.... B4 Appeals court says gun sales protected .................................... A3 HERO: President Barack Obama on Monday awarded the Medal of Valor to 13 officers including Donald Thompson of the Los Angeles Police Department. Mr. Thompson, who is 6 feet 7 inches tall, was honored for pulling an unconscious man from a burning car. A2 Buffett Heirs Bet on Apple Potential successors made $1 billion wager, a rare foray into tech for Berkshire Hathaway BY ANUPREETA DAS Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed Monday that it had made a $1 billion bet on Apple Inc. stock earlier this year, boosting the iPhone maker’s market value by more than $18 billion. But to the cottage industry that fervently follows the world’s most famous investor, it just didn’t seem like a move Mr. Buffett would make. It wasn’t, as it turns out. Instead, it was among the largest investments yet by the two former hedge-fund managers that Mr. Buffett brought on board as potential successors to run his company’s $129 billion stock portfolio. Mr. Buffett has long voiced his aversion to investing in technology companies. Four years ago, he specifically ruled out investing in Apple. But Todd Combs, who joined Berkshire in 2011, and Ted Weschler, who arrived a year later, have shown a willingness to wade into corners of the market that Mr. Buffett won’t touch, including the tech sector. Mr. Combs and Mr. Weschler declined to comment. The investment shows the amount of rope Mr. Buffett is willing to give his protégés, as the legendary stock picker, who turns 86 years old in August, ONLINE LOAN PIONEER BOOMED, THEN TRIPPED Protest Over Power Line in Kabul LendingClub hurt by ‘control deficiencies;’ CEO got 24-hour ultimatum BY PETER RUDEGEAIR AND ANNAMARIA ANDRIOTIS Steep Slide LendingClub's daily share price since IPO $30 25 20 IPO price $15 15 10 5 Monday $3.94 0 2014 ’15 ’16 Source: WSJ Market Data Group THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. On April 22, LendingClub Corp. founder and Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche accepted a “disruptive innovation” award in New York with other winners such as “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and scientist Richard Leakey. Mr. Laplanche, 45 years old, who built the largest online lender in the U.S. by volume, said disruption was about “chartering new territories and doing some crazy things.” Two weeks later, he was pulled into a meeting with two directors of the San Francisco company. They told Mr. Laplanche to resign within 24 hours or else he would be fired, based on a unanimous vote of LendingClub’s other directors, people familiar with the matter said. He quit. Mr. Laplanche’s exit has rattled investors who believed LendingClub was one of the strongest companies in the fast-growing business of putting borrowers and investors together through technology. In fact, LendingClub grew so fast that its internal controls couldn’t keep up. On Monday, LendingClub disclosed in a securities filing that it received a grand-jury subpoena from the Justice Department on May 9, the Please see CEO page A16 A Neglected Composer Is Unmuted by Michael Jackson i i i Fans treat di Lasso statue as shrine to gloved one; a hot-wax coat BY ELLEN EMMERENTZE JERVELL MUNICH—A statue of 16thcentury composer Orlando di Lasso in this city’s center draws fans from around the globe. Music lovers come to light candles and leave pictures and other bits of memorabilia. Di Lasso, a Flemish musician who spent much of his time in this city, was a giant in his day. “He was amazingly famous,” says Franz Körndle, a musicology professor at University of Augsburg and a di Lasso expert. “There’s not been anything like him in music history since.” The fans swarming to his bronze likeness propriated the pedaren’t devotees. estal of di Lasso’s Many have no idea statue as an imwho he was, and promptu Michael don’t even notice Jackson shrine to he’s there. mourn his sudden They’re Michael death. “This place is Jackson aficionados. so Michael-y.” They flock to the That Michael vibe site because it is in is also a discordant front of the Hotel reminder of fame’s Bayerischer Hof—a vagaries. Di Lasso, venue where the who died in 1594, musician often was also adored and stayed. feted in his day. Like “This is the place Orlando di Lasso Mr. Jackson, di Lasso statue where the spirit is, traveled widely to the magic,” says perform. His compoNena Akhtar, head of fan group sitions were printed and disPlease see STATUE page A16 MJ’s Legacy, which in 2009 ap- WAKIL KOHSAR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES SandRidge filed for chapter 11, becoming the latest in a wave of energy firms seeking bankruptcy protection. B1 EURO $1.1322 BY JESS BRAVIN AND LOUISE RADNOFSKY U.S. policy makers moved to boost oversight of the Treasury market amid growing concern over the prospect of more volatility. C1 LendingClub said it received a Justice Department subpoena on the same day it announced its CEO’s exit. A1 HHHH $3.00 WSJ.com PETE MAROVICH/BLOOMBERG NEWS PETER J SMITH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL P2JW138000-6-A00100-1--------XA DISSENT: Thousands protested a proposal to reroute a planned electrical line to skirt a mostly Hazara province, amid worries the region would lose out on new sources of power and investment. A20 In Battleground State, Voters Split on Trump BY AARON ZITNER AND DANTE CHINNI READING, Pa.—In this city of shuttered factories and falling incomes, Donald Trump’s swagger and promises to get tough with trading partners have rallied Republicans and shown signs of drawing working-class voters to the party. A short distance away, in the thriving office parks of Montgomery County, Republicans worry that those same qualities are repelling upper-income GOP voters. That’s the tricky electoral math that Mr. Trump faces in an expected general-election push to win Pennsylvania and industrial Midwest states that haven’t backed a Republican for president in decades. Mr. Trump’s working-class appeal has helped add new Republicans to the voter rolls in the area around Reading, one of the nation’s poorest cities. But in adjacent and more populous Montgomery County, Republicans fear Mr. Trump could amplify a recent tilt into the Democratic camp. Democrats there have made bigger gains than the GOP in voter registration. “That’s the worry,” said Art Bustard, a 61-year-old who owns a promotional-products business in Montgomery County. Mr. Trump, he says, “is very popular with small-business men, contractors, machineshop operators,” but he must show “the professional class Please see GOP page A4 Election 2016............................. A4