Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently up 45.22 points at 8,106.29, while the
Hang Seng remained closed for the Chinese New Year holiday.

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

The world's biggest economy is spiralling rapidly into deep recession after house prices across America sank at their fastest rate on record, according to a survey widely perceived as the most authoritative measure of US residential property values.
US houses sink at fastest rate on record

Institutional shareholders were ignored by the banks and failed to blow the whistle on directors who drove share prices to collapse, according to their own testimony in front of the Treasury Select Committee.
Institutional shareholders admit oversight failure on banks

The Commons has told four leading hedge fund managers: 'You're snubbing the public; not only that, but you're making shedloads of money'
Treasury Select Committee MPs accuse funds of cashing in on misery

Santander is offering 1.38 billion (1.28 billion) to reimburse individual clients who lost money in the Bernard Madoff pyramid scheme, the Spanish bank said last night. Santander, which is the first to offer compensation for Madoff losses, said that it would repay the original investments of individual customers, but not institutions.
Santander offers 1.38 bn to compensate clients hit by Madoff

Vulture funds believe British companies will offer the best investment opportunity in Europe this year, as the UK faces a sharper slowdown than its neighbours, a survey has found.
Vulture funds home in on UK

Fortis certainly thinks so. The banks analysis, which is based on Didier Sornettes research into bubbles (think US housing and oil circa 2008), holds that recent increases in CDS spreads in both US and European markets have reached unsustainable levels and are due for a correction - sharpish.
Will CDS spreads tumble in February?

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End-of-day Market Overview