Morning all. Thursday's market reports:
Telegraph
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money
Friday
Markets have a habit of doing it. What looks like an ugly duckling one year transforms into a swan the next. So perhaps it is no great surprise that it was mining companies that underpinned the blue-chip index's incredible rally in 2009.
Miners lead the charge as FTSE 100 rises 22pc in 2009
Some other stock market Cassandras call it the "dash for trash": a huge rebound of highly indebted, consumer-cyclical stocks that were on the verge of collapse.
FTSE 250: 'Cheap and nasty' rally helps mid-caps outperform blue-chips
Britain's blue-chip index has delivered its best year for more than a decade, but investors should keep the champagne on ice as the FTSE 100 is still down 22pc down on December 31, 1999.
FTSE 100's recent rally fails to make up for a lost decade
There's a laundry list of reasons longer-dated Treasury yields should keep rising: increased government borrowing, concerns the Federal Reserve's easy monetary policy will stoke inflation and investor preference for higher-yielding alternatives. But there are plenty of factors that could upset the balance without the Fed lifting a finger.
Why betting on higher Treasury yields in 2010 may prove dangerous
Lending to households and businesses continued to pick up in the final three months of last year and is expected to rise further in the coming months, the Bank of England said yesterday, boosting hopes that its scheme of quantitative easing is working.
Money printing scheme is working, Bank of England says
Banks and other lenders were making more mortgages available to their customers in the final quarter of the year and are expected to further boost their offerings in the new year, the Bank of England said today.
Banks tipped to boost mortgages in early 2010
Britain is ushering in the new year with the threat of widespread unrest as civil servants, tube drivers and rail workers are poised to ballot on strike action.
Year of industrial unrest looms as public sector braces for spending cuts
Saturday
HSBC has distanced itself from the Treasury and most economic analysts by taking a bullish stand on the economy, with a forecast for growth of 2.2 per cent this year.
HSBC goes out on a limb and predicts growth beyond dreams of Chancellor
China and six other South-east Asian countries yesterday toasted the inauguration of the biggest free trade area in the world, when the Association of South East Asian Nations, or Asean-6, was formally launched.
The world in 2010: China continues its unstoppable economic charge
With hindsight we can see that two events occurring within days of each other in late 2001 brought about an epochal change in the world's strategic system, drawing China and the Mid-East oil powers into each other's arms again after five centuries of estrangement. The old Silk Road came back to life.
Arabia takes the New Silk Road to China, spurning the West
Locked in a 16-year down-cycle and ending the decade as the most dismal commodity performer, lumber is poised to become the crude oil of the new decade. It all depends, analysts say, on Chinese building codes and the financial mathematics of 150 million new kitchen tables.
It was dead wood, now lumber is the new oil
Sunday
How bad was the last decade? Across the Western world, there's near universal agreement that 2000-2009 has been awful.
Developing nations emerge from shadows as sun sets on the West
The big picture is that the world economy is recovering. That recovery is, however, heavily skewed towards emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. The International Monetary Funds numbers tell the story as well as anybodys. In 2009 the world economy contracted by 1.1%, the worst performance since the second world war. That was split between a 3.4% drop for advanced economies and a 1.7% rise for the emerging ones.
This decade will tip the economy to the east
The Financial Services Authority has beefed up its scrutiny of stock market leaks to the media over concerns that companies are not revealing enough information to investors.
FSA demands companies respond to market rumours, false or otherwise
AN official investigation into the problems at Britains failed banks has revealed a litany of internal breakdowns and flawed controls that masked the full extent of their failings.
Failings at the banks to be laid bare
Monday
Despite a sharp rebound in equity prices during 2009 there are more gains to come, according to strategists in the City of London. However, these gains will be limited.
Equities are 'preferred asset class' in 2010
House price growth threatens to be limited for the next 10 years because of the damaging legacy of the Noughties, new analysis suggests.
House prices face decade of 'sobriety'
The challenge for whichever party wins this year's election will be to maintain public services on a much tighter budget.
Britain faces a new age of austerity to repay government debts
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Need to know