A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

The corporate diary is thin this week, although there is a lengthy list of ex-dividends to be aware of Wednesday..... Look out for numbers from Bellway (Wednesday), Cairn Energy & Kingfisher (Thursday) and Enterprise Inns (Friday). Enjoy this wintery Easter as best you can... I'll be back Tuesday with the latest news. Greystone Thanks, as always to Supermum, Kyoto and Digger for their invaluable input to The Traders Thread. (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

Friday's market reports:

The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Independent
The Guardian
This is Money

Friday

A hedge fund based in London set up a "dirty-tricks unit" to manipulate share prices and get illicit information on companies in an attempt to make millions on the stock market, an insider has revealed. The allegations made in a sworn statement seen by The Daily Telegraph and which has been sent to financial regulators will add to growing concern over the activities of rogue traders in the City.
Revealed: the dirty tricks of rogue traders

Financial investigators are probing whether the unfounded rumours of financial turmoil that engulfed HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, originated in the Far East. One of the first signs on Wednesday morning was a phone call from Singapore. A British banker who took the call believed the rumours probably started there.
Email and Singapore call causes City frenzy

One of Europe's biggest investment banks has been forced to admit that it had uncovered a 1.4 billion fraud among its London-based traders. Credit Suisse said a number of traders were suspected of inflating the value of their investments in an attempt to boost their end-of-year bonuses.
London traders sacked in 1.4bn bank fraud

The Bank of England is considering extensive new measures to ease the effect of the credit crunch on UK lenders. Governor Mervyn King is expected to throw the banks a funding lifeline by widening the collateral the central bank will accept and by injecting more medium-term money into the markets.
BoE set to throw lenders a lifeline

Britain's banks risk losing 7 billion from the falling value of the country's office, shop and industrial buildings stock over the next two years and write-offs could balloon to 18 billion if the economy slides into recession.
Banks exposed by commercial property slump

American investment banks borrowed a total of $28.8bn (14.5bn) from the Federal Reserve in just three days through a new lending facility aimed at breathing life into the beleaguered credit markets.
New Fed facility lends $28bn to banks

CIT, America's largest independent commercial finance house, is to draw on $7.3bn (3.67bn) of emergency unsecured credit lines in order to keep afloat as it struggles to raise cash in the open market.
CIT to use emergency credit lines

The United States will come to an economic standstill in the second quarter of this year as it struggles under the weight of what could prove to be the worst housing slump in history, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has predicted.
"Deepest US housing slump" OECD warns

A sell-off in gold, food and oil gathered pace yesterday as speculative funds pulled cash out of the futures markets in a continuing quest for security amid fears of a slowing American economy.
Funds race to pull out of commodities futures

The governments of Singapore and Abu Dhabi pledged yesterday that investments made by their sovereign wealth funds would be based solely on commercial grounds and that they would not use them for political gain.
Sovereign wealth funds reach agreement with US Treasury

A number of London's stockbrokers have followed the lead of MF Global and demanded that clients put up more cash to cover derivative positions. Finspreads, City Index, IG Index and Saxo Bank have all informed clients that they plan to increase the "margin" required to cover contract for differences (CFDs) on banking and other stocks.
Brokers raise margins required to cover CFDs

Saturday

The former deputy chairman of HBOS accused the Bank of England yesterday of failing to support British banks through the global credit crisis. Sir Peter Burt, who was chief executive of Bank of Scotland before its merger with Halifax to create HBOS, told the BBCs Today programme that the Bank risked sending Britain into a depression because of its worries over moral hazard.
Governor must do more to help banks, says Burt

Hundreds of thousands of indebted Britons are at risk of losing their homes if they fall behind on their credit card and personal loan repayments after moves by the high street banks to protect their weakening balance sheets.
Homes at risk as banks seek more security for credit card debt

The biggest mortgage lenders are bearing the brunt of the fallout from the credit crunch, according to research which shows that many consumers are turning to smaller rivals to find more competitive deals.
Big mortgage lenders hit hardest by crisis as funds dry up

The US Congress has begun an inquiry into last weekends bailout of Bear Stearns by the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase as Washington grows increasingly concerned that American taxpayers are paying the price for Wall Streets mistakes.
US Congress scrutinises bailout of Bear Stearns

Profits at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers could deteriorate significantly this year if the turmoil sweeping the capital markets persists, a leading research agency said yesterday. Standard & Poor's (S&P) gave warning that it might cut the credit ratings on both investment banks, lowering the outlook on Goldman and Lehman from stable to negative. That comment, which coincided with reports of looming job losses at Goldman, could result in higher borrowing costs and a fall in the banks' shares.
Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers face downgrading

The financial crisis enveloping the world banking sector has left the sovereign wealth funds, controlled by governments from Singapore and China to Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, nursing multibillion-dollar losses after helping to bail out major western banks.
Revealed: how sovereign wealth funds were left nursing multibillion losses

Alan Greenspan has claimed that the current market crisis afflicting the US was inevitable and defended his record as chairman of the Federal Reserve yesterday.
Alan Greenspan says market crisis 'inevitable'

Clients of Global Trader Europe (GTE) owed the London-based broker 15m at the time of its collapse last month.
Global Trader collapse points up CFD dangers

A vast oilfield operated by a BP affiliate in Siberia will be investigated by Russia's state environmental agency, adding further pressure to TNK-BP, which was raided this week by the Russian state security service.
Siberian oil probe piles pressure on TNK-BP

Sunday

For now the meltdown panic has subsided. Yet the hottest document flying around the City last week was a paper by Barclays Capital probing what might happen in a counterparty default. "Upon the default of the counterparty, [traded] derivatives would be immediately repriced, with spreads widening dramatically," said the Barclays report. One side would suddenly be trapped with staggering losses on their books. Yet the winners would be unable to collect their prize from the insolvent bank in the middle. It would take years to unravel all the claims in court. By then the financial landscape would be a scene of carnage.
Fed's rescue halted a derivatives Chernobyl

BRITAINs banks believe they have secured a deal under which the Bank of England will provide the kind of support Americas Federal Reserve has given to its beleaguered financial institutions in recent months.
Mervyn King bows to Fed-style rescue deal

A chief executive of a FTSE company put in more bluntly: "Does the Bank of England think the Fed is stupid or that the actions of the ECB are stupid? They need to wake up to the fact that this is serious and they need to help - that's what we have a f**king central bank for."
HBOS pulled back from brink

The board of HBOS, the British banking group that was last week engulfed in crisis after a run on its shares, is poised to enlist a heavyweight former City trader to lead an investigation into the stock price collapse.
HBOS plans 'forensic' probe into share raid

Andy Hornby, the chief executive of HBOS, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on shares in the high street lender in the days surrounding last week's share price plunge.
HBOS directors bought stock at bargain prices

It's yet to break, but a litigation storm is expected to blow through corporate America. And as the US banks brace themselves, their European counterparts look set to get drenched too.
Claims to hit European banks

While financial stocks were being battered on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in between one goverment was scrambling to prevent a meltdown of an entire economy.
Iceland shows cracks as the krona crashes

The oil-rich Middle East and China are bailing out Western banks, but at what cost?
Sovereign funds discover gulf in values

Sovereign wealth funds are set to accelerate investment in stricken banks, despite billions being wiped off the stakes they have amassed in the US and UK since the credit crunch.
Sovereign funds shrug off losses and pledge to ramp up their investments

Monday's newspapers:

UBS is preparing for a multi-billion rights issue just weeks after securing a 13bn Sfr (6.5bn) capital injection from sovereign wealth funds. One London-based equity market banker said UBS was likely to announce a rights issue within the next two weeks and that an issue size could be as much as 10pc of the Swiss bank's 58bn Sfr market value.
UBS 'weeks away from rights issue'

Britains biggest lenders are bracing themselves for fresh turbulence on the wholesale markets amid suggestions that it may be weeks before the Bank of England agrees to free up the banking system with a bumper cash injection.
Lenders braced for fresh market turbulence until Bank of England acts

The Bank of England yesterday rejected persistent lobbying from Britain's banks to follow the example set by the US Federal Reserve and buy "toxic" mortgage-backed securities from ailing banks hit by the credit crunch.
King refuses to bail banks out of toxic mess

Senior HBOS staff spent almost 6 million bumping up their shareholdings in the FTSE 100 mortgage bank the day after malicious rumours that it had run into funding problems sent its stock price plummeting.
HBOS chiefs raise their investments as rumours send shares plunging

Mike Ashley, the maverick retailer who owns Newcastle Football Club, has made a thumping multi-million-pound loss on a bet on HBOS bank. Sources close to the situation admitted that Mr Ashley, deputy chairman of Sports Direct, had lost tens of millions. A spokesman for him declined to comment on reports that he was 129m out of pocket on the bet.
Mike Ashley scores own goal with HBOS

A former Apax-owned Welsh consumer finance group with a 1.2 billion loans book is poised to be sold within the next seven to ten days to an unnamed rival private equity firm for as little as 1p.
Lender Picture Financial faces sale for 1p as credit crisis deepens

The stock of unsold homes is rising steadily as the mood in the housing market darkens, but the array of properties is failing to tempt buyers back as homeowners demand ever-higher prices, according to Rightmove, the property website.
Housing: Asking prices up; homes take longer to sell

We've already seen that lending to first-time buyers has slumped by a third since last summer while first-time buyer numbers have dropped to a record low. Lending to buy-to-let landlords is drying up too.
Where are the first-time buyers? Day of reckoning near for the housing market

Masaaki Shirakawa, the Bank of Japan's acting governor, has warned that the country's economy faces an uncertain future. It comes at the end of a week in which the Nikkei share index sank to its lowest level for almost three years.
Economy poised on knife edge

The president of Opec has predicted that the price of oil could stay as high as $110 a barrel for the rest of the year, spurred by investors seeking to hedge themselves against the weakening US dollar.
Oil price could stay as high as $110 a barrel this year, says Opec

Hello traders!

In the US tonight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 187.32 points to
12,548.64, with 27 of its 30 components posting gains.

The S&P 500 climbed 20.37 points to 1,349.88 while the technology-laden Nasdaq
Composite advanced 68.64 points to 2,326.75.

See you in the morning with the latest.........

G.

Tuesday's newspapers:

JP Morgan Chase is to pay a revised $2.1bn (1.05bn) for Bear Stearns after sweetening the terms of the deal to make it almost impossible for a rival to make a counter offer amid growing concern among other banks over the original $236m transaction.
Bear Stearns deal to deter Morgan Chase rivals

The problems in the US housing market that sparked the global credit crunch showed early signs of stabilising yesterday. The US estate agents' organisation announced that existing home sales increased for the first time in seven months in February as buyers took advantage of a sharp drop in prices.
Glimmer of hope for US home sellers

Bear trader Simon Cawkwell has scotched speculation linking him to the aggressive shorting of HBOS stock last week. The attack on the bank's shares saw it lose 17pc of its value before regulators stepped in to quash false rumours about its liquidity position.
I wasn't HBOS raider, insists 'Evil Knievel'

If there are any doubts that the credit crunch is starting to hit home, the latest YouGov poll puts them to rest. Increasing debt, lower savings rates and mounting fears over job security are three of the major themes to emerge from last week's poll of 2,112 Britons.
Rising debt and fears over jobs as crunch hits

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently ahead 290.95 points at 12,771.04, while the
Hang Seng ended the morning up 954.89 points (4.52%) at 22,063.11.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for May delivery, dropped 51 cents
to $100.35 per barrel.

Happy trading!

G.

The Tuesday Press Roundup

The Nikkei ended up 265.13 points (2.1%) at 12,745.22.

London shares open higher after NY gains overnight, banking stocks gainsUK smallcap opening - Uniq lower as short-term uncertainty offsets profit swingUK smallcap opening - Sandvine Corp rises on product use boostUK smallcap opening - Range Resources drops following suspension on ASX

BROKERWATCH Kazakhmys started as 'equal-weight' by Lehman, target 1,800 pence

UK smallcap opening - Cambrian Mining soars as AIM suspension lifted

STOCKWATCH Barclays higher; Merrill Lynch reiterates 'buy', 600p target

UK small caps open stronger; Cambrian Mining soars as AIM suspension liftedLondon shares open higher after NY gains overnight, banking stocks gains UPDATE

STOCKWATCH Colonial up after creditors say they will continue to back group

WALL STREET OUTLOOK Lower open seen after strong run-up; confidence data awaited

Metals - Gold dips after picking up from pre-Easter sell-off