Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 9.36 points at 8,626.97, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning session dpwn 63.96 points at 14,045.02.

Crude oil was down 30 cents at $53.70 a barrel on Nymex.

Happy Friday!

G.

Morning all. Market reports:

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

The downturn in the American economy is slightly deeper than previously thought, with productivity in the last three months of 2008 at its lowest since 1982.
Declining US GDP casts doubt over recovery

Rejoice. After much pious posturing and criminal wastage of time the European Central Bank at last seems ready join the Anglo-Saxons, Japanese, Swiss, and Isrealis in printing money to fend off disaster.
Europe fetches the monetary helicopters, at long last

Investors snapped up 1.1bn in gilts in an auction that attracted bids for almost three times the amount on offer, said the Debt Management Office (DMO), which sells gilts to raise money on behalf of the Government.
Gilt buyers back after shock failed auction

The Office of National Statistics said that the volume of retail sales grew just 0.4 per cent in February, compared with February last year. Sales volumes were 1.9 per cent below January's, although retailers were badly affected by the poor weather conditions early in the month.
Retail sales grow at slowest rate for 14 years

Bank shares bounced on Thursday on hopes that measures taken by Barclays and the state-backed Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland will boost their capital strength.
Banks move to bolster capital base

The FSA watchdog will shortly conclude its trawl of Barclays books and has indicated the bank does not require fresh capital.
Barclays nears end of stress test

The Irish economy shrank by a record 7.5 per cent towards the end of last year as consumer spending continued to collapse and industrial output took a severe hit in the downturn. The decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the biggest fall since quarterly records began in the 1990s.
Irish economy shrinks at record rate of 7.5%

Hundreds of Russian banks are likely to go under by the end of the year amid mounting bad loans, potentially hitting as much as 20% of credit portfolios, a top Russian banker warned Thursday.
Russian banks in crisis

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

KOSPI	VIX	GOLD	NYMEX CRUDE

End-of-day Market Overview