Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 18.92 points at 9,413.91, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning up 289.2 points at 17,679.07.

Crude oil traded at $58.23 a barrel on Nymex.

Happy Monday!

G.

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

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

Saturday

President Obama said that America was showing signs of economic recovery, even as the country's unemployment rate hit a near-26-year high.
US jobless at 26-year high but President Obama hopeful

Rising spirits among investors sparked a powerful rally in shares on both sides of the Atlantic. Leading experts predicted that it marked the beginning of a bull market, with share values back on course for sustained gains over coming months, and perhaps several years.
Investors bet that worst of recession is over and predict new bull market

Sushil Wadhwani, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), has warned against excessive optimism over economic recovery since Britain may suffer another setback next year.
Britain at risk of economic setback in 2010, warns Sushil Wadhwani

Nymex WTI futures on Friday were headed for their biggest weekly gain in two months, trading at around $57.49 per barrel in European afternoon trade.
The coming oil-equity disconnect or the end of efficient markets theory?

On Friday the group reported its seventh consecutive quarterly loss in the order of $23bn. Whats more, having found its net worth fall below zero, the company has been forced to ask the US Treasury for another $19bn in capital.
Prime-time problems for Fannie

Big institutional investors are under pressure as never before. Not only are they struggling to limit their losses in a volatile market but they are also feeling the heat of government to prove they can police the companies they own on behalf of savers and pensioners more effectively.
Executives surprised to find shareholders revolting

Sunday

Bear market rallies can be explosive. Japan had four violent spikes during its Lost Decade (33pc, 55pc, 44pc, and 79pc). Wall Street had seven during the Great Depression, lasting 40 days on average. The spring of 1931 was a corker. James Montier at SociGale said that even hard-bitten bears are starting to throw in the towel, suspecting that we really are on the cusp of new boom. That is a tell-tale sign.
Enjoy the rally while it lasts - but expect to take a sucker punch

The Bank of England will this week declare that it expects Britain to enjoy a powerful V-shaped recovery as it raises its inflation forecast for the first time since the onset of the economic crisis.
Bank of England: recovery to be V-shaped

The Bank of England is concerned that the UK's banking system is heading for a third wave of crisis that could snuff out fragile signs of recovery in the economy. On Thursday the Bank surprised the City by announcing that it would pump an extra 50bn of new money into the economy despite recent stockmarket rallies.
Bank of England braced for third wave of financial crisis

Unemployment in Britain will continue to rise for at least another three years, according to a leading economic consultancy, as official figures out next week are expected to show another large jump in the number of jobless.
Unemployment could peak at 4m in 2012

Barclays has received at least two counter-offers for iShares, its exchange-traded funds business, as part of the "go shop" period that allows it to solicit rival bids for the unit until the middle of next month.
Barclays gets two more offers for iShares

Monday

Japan has become Asia's foremost hotbed of fraud, possibly concealing financial deceptions on the scale of the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, senior lawyers have warned.
Lawyers sound alert about rising Japanese fraud

HSBC'S US problems continue to escalate with Europe's biggest bank expected to reveal that losses in Household, the business it bought in 2003, hit almost $5bn (3.3bn) in the first three months of the year.
US problems take shine off strong HSBC performance

A quarter of Britain's building societies are expected to fall into losses this year, raising fears that further rescues would be called for after the failure of the Dunfermline in March.
Building societies continue to count cost of crunch

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

KOSPI	VIX	GOLD	NYMEX CRUDE

End-of-day Market Overview