Good morning traders!

In the US last night, the Dow was down 184 points at 8,285, with the Nasdaq off
52 points at 1,664 and the S&P500 24 points lower at 884.

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 217.96 points at 9,122.53, while the Hang
Seng ended the morning down 551.54 points at 16,508.08.

Crude oil traded down to $57.32 a barrel on Nymex.

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

The Bank of England has thrown cold water over hopes that the green shoots of economic recovery have sprung. Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, cut his growth forecast and declared that there is as much chance that the economy will still be shrinking this time next year, as there is of it growing.
Bank of England hedges bets over recovery

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is attempting to bring the $450 trillion (299 trillion) over-the-counter derivatives market in part blamed for last Autumns financial meltdown in to the regulatory fold for the first time.
Geithner seeking to bring derivitives market under regulation

The new rules would force standardised OTC derivatives to be cleared through central clearinghouses to reduce the risk of investors being over-exposed to a single counterparty.
US unveils OTC derivatives rules

Global demand for oil is continuing to slide as the economy contracts, the Opec producers cartel said yesterday. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about a third of the worlds crude oil, said that it expected consumption to fall by 1.57 million barrels a day this year to an average of 84.03 million barrels.
Oil demand still declining, says Opec

Here's how the wheeze works: you buy some cheap bonds off the Government, swap them with other City folk, sit on them for a bit and then sell them straight back to the Bank of England at a higher price. Voila, you pocket a tidy portion of the difference. And not only is this legal, it is actually endorsed by the Government.
Traders take a ride on the cash carousel

The Financial Services Authority imposed the fine on the US investment bank over the case of Matthew Piper, a former proprietary trader of credit-default swap indexes. Mr Piper was also fined 105,000 and banned from working in the City.
Morgan Stanley fined 1.4m for failure to supervise trader Matthew Piper

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

KOSPI	VIX	GOLD	NYMEX CRUDE

AZN Jeffries: downgraded to underperform
AMEC UBS: upgraded to buy from neutral
BARC Morgan Stanley: upgraded to overweight, tp raised to 325 from 270
BDEV UBS[HB]: upgraded to buy from neutral, tp raised to 180 from 92
GFS RBS: initiated buy
ITV RBS: sell, tp 19
VTG UBS: upgraded to buy from neutral

End-of-day Market Overview