Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 8.31 points at 8,479.99 while the Hang Seng
ended the morning down 73.25 points at 13,837.09.

Crude oil was down 56 cents at $53.17 a barrel on Nymex.

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

Tim Geithner has offered extremely generous funding to the private sector to help bail out US banks. The Treasury Secretarys promise of lots of cheap non-recourse leverage could make plain vanilla investments in toxic assets attractive. But ingenious minds will probably find more elaborate ways to play Geithners game.
How to game Geithners bailout programmes

The US government plan to free beleaguered banks of up to $1 trillion (690bn) of toxic assets will expose American taxpayers to too much risk, leading economist Joseph Stiglitz has cautioned.
Geithner rescue package 'robbery of the American people'

The US governments toxic assets plan will force banks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo to take further large writedowns on their loans, requiring them to raise more capital from taxpayers or investors, analysts have warned.
US banks face big writedowns

Bridgewater Associates Inc, one of the world's biggest hedge-fund managers, said on Tuesday it might be interested in participating in the U.S. Treasury's public-private investment program, calling it a "big transfer of money from the government to the banks and to the buyers."
Hedge fund Bridgewater mulls U.S toxic asset plan

Goldman Sachs is in talks to hand back the $10bn (7bn) it received from the US government last year, and could be the first major bank to free itself from the strings attached to taxpayer money.
Goldman Sachs plans to hand back $10bn bailout

US president Barack Obama has declared that there are "signs of progress" in revitalising the American economy and urged Americans to have "renewed confidence that a better day will come".
Barack Obama declares 'signs of progress' for US economy

The Governor of the Bank of England laid bare tensions between Gordon Brown and the Treasury yesterday by warning that Britain could not afford a second economic stimulus in the Budget.
Mervyn King warns Gordon Brown to stop spending

Mortgage lending in the UK has reached "unmanageable" levels and must shrink as a proportion of national economic output if banks are to make home loans profitable again, a new report claims.
UK mortgage lending at 1,200bn 'unmanageable', claims Cap Gemini banking report

Japans exports plunged a record 49.4 percent in February as deepening recessions in the U.S. and Europe sapped demand for the countrys cars and electronics.
Japan Exports Drop Record 49% as Global Slump Deepens

The economic crisis sweeping Central and Eastern Europe has claimed a third victim in a month after the Czech government lost a vote of no confidence on Tuesday night in a drama that risks setting off a fresh round of investor flight from the region.
Czech Republic joins East Europe's falling dominoes

A rumor briefly circulated Hungary a few weeks ago: things were so bad, it went, that the government intends to freeze bank accounts. The government repeatedly assured Hungarians that the rumor was groundless. But so deep is the current economic malaise gripping the country that thousands of people were taken in.
Is Hungary the Financial Crisis' Next Iceland?

Credit rating agencies face regulation in Europe by a single body after a key parliamentary committee in Strasbourg endorsed proposed legislation.
EU to regulate credit ratings

MF Global, the brokerage spun off from Man Group, the London-listed hedge fund, has admitted defrauding a former client who lost millions of pounds while trading derivatives on the back of inaccurate information.
Broker MF Global admits defrauding client

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End-of-day Market Overview