Good morning traders!

In Asia today, Japan's Nikkei was recently up 206.84 points at 8,230.15, while the
Hang Seng was up 29.61 points at 13,272.57 at the midpoint.

Happy Friday!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

The deepening global recession means that the world economy as a whole could shrink next year and will battle to avoid destructive Thirties-style deflation, the United Nations said yesterday.
Global economy to shrink; deflation greatest threat, says UN

The US Senate has approved President-elect Barack Obama's request for $350 billion in unspent financial bailout funds.
US senate releases second half of $700bn financial bailout

Schwarzenegger added that California would be insolvent within weeks. Indeed, the state government has already ordered state offices to shut for two days a month and for civil servants to take unpaid leave.
California: Insolvent within weeks"

The U.S. government agreed to invest $20 billion more in Bank of America Corp. and guarantee $118 billion of its assets to help the lender absorb Merrill Lynch & Co. and prevent the financial crisis from deepening.
U.S. Gives Bank of America a $138 Billion Lifeline

BofAs discovery last month of the staggeringly weak condition of Merrills balance sheet not only threatened to derail the landmark transaction before it closed, but raised hackles at BofA headquarters in North Carolina, where executives are wondering whether they were sold a pup.
Merrills woes anger BofA executives

Citigroups Q4 results to be announced Friday are expected to show a loss of $6bn to $10bn and provide details of its planned break-up.
Citi expected to show steep Q4 loss

A package of radical measures to get British banks lending more is due to be hammered out at the weekend in an attempt to prevent the recession souring into an even more serious downturn.
New bank bailout planned to fight deepening recession

The Irish Government is nationalising its third-largest bank in a further sign of the countrys economic crisis. Dublin was forced last night to abandon attempts to keep Anglo Irish Bank in private hands when it announced a U-turn on its previous pledge that would have seen ordinary shareholders retaining 25 per cent of the bank.
Anglo Irish is nationalised as Dublin does a U-turn

Shipping brokers in Tokyo say that Morgan Stanley has joined a growing international scramble to secure an oil supertanker and use it to store millions of barrels of crude in what commodity dealers believe may be the trade of the year.
Morgan Stanley to secure supertanker to store crude oil

In case you may have missed it, theres a big new kid on the refining block - Reliance Petroleum and its Jamnagar refinery. At peak production the site will be capable of processing a whopping 580,000 barrels per day making it the worlds biggest refinery complex. The site was officially opened in December but its only now starting to ramp up production. As a result it will likley begin influencing market dynamics very shortly
Not just a refinery, a super refinery

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