VALENTINES DAY

Only Love

Love can sometimes be fresh.
Love can sometimes be new.
Love can sometimes make you happy.
And sometimes make you blue.
Love is the light that radiates from your eyes.
Love is your image floating in the skies.
Love is true.
And darling, the only love for me is you.

Thats sooooo sweet ..

Anyone got a bucket handy?

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

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

Saturday

China's surprise move to further tighten its monetary policy spooked the world's markets yesterday, just as investors in equities, bonds and commodities appeared to be putting the panic of this week's Greek sovereign debt crisis behind them.
Chinese move to slow economy rocks markets

George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, today slammed the EU for displaying "timidity" in its dealings with the country as it grappled with its worst financial crisis in a decade.
'Timid' EU must not make us fight this battle alone, says Greek prime minister

After years of lecturing governments on the need for low inflation and minimal intervention, the International Monetary Fund's top economist has admitted that orthodox policies were powerless to prevent the crisis that swept the global economy. In a stunning turnaround, Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, now suggests that higher inflation, help for the poor and greater government involvement might do a better job helping protect countries from financial turmoil.
More inflation may be better after all, says IMF

A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britains books.
New tax bombshell: 20% VAT

For your amusement/unease/perusal - a collection of sovereign CDS, courtesy of CMA. Interesting to note that the cost of protecting British or Japanese sovereign debt against default, is now higher than the cost of protecting government bonds from, err, Slovenia.
Around the world in 22 CDSs

Sunday

Europe's politicians are poised to offer more substantive help to the crisis-hit Greek government tomorrow if last week's pledge of solidarity fails to calm the storm in financial markets.
EU braced to ride to rescue of Greece as euro sinks

A raft of European banks, healthcare companies and property firms have attracted a sudden spike in "short positions" over the past two weeks, according to figures from DataExplorers.
Hedge funds turn on Euro stocks

INFLATION is set to surge this week, testing the Bank of Englands resolve and raising questions over its forecast of a sharp fall by the end of the year. When Mervyn King, the governor, presented its inflation report last week, he acknowledged that inflation was likely to have risen above 3% in January, triggering an open letter to the chancellor.
City fears blowout on inflation target

Monday

Senior figures at the European Commission believe that the plans announced so far could leave Greece short by as much as 1.25 of the 4 percentage-point cut required by the end of 2010, The Times has learnt. There were further damaging disclosures over the weekend about how Greece had hidden the true size of its debt in order to meet the criteria for the euro in 2001.
Greek austerity programme not tough enough, European Commission fears

The Frankfurter Allgemeine summed up German feelings when it asked why taxpayers should bail out a country that thinks it an outrage to raise the retirement age to 63. "Should Germans have to work in the future until 69 instead of 67 so that Greeks can enjoy early retirement?"
Germany growls as Greece balks at immolation

The scale of public resistance throughout Europe to a potential Greek bail-out has become clear as it emerged that the majority of Germans think the Mediterranean nation should be thrown out of the euro if its problems deepen.
Most Germans want Greece thrown out of euro

According to a report yesterday, Goldman suggested a way that Greece could push healthcare liabilities further out into the future. Other eurozone countries have been discovered using cross-currency swaps similar to one causing concern in Greece, including Italy, which did a controversial transaction with JP Morgan before it joined the euro. The size and scale of the use of derivatives is not fully understood, even by Eurostat, the European Union's official statistics body, which has complained that member nations' finances are opaque and that the information it is given about derivatives deals is incomplete.
Goldman Sachs: the Greek connection

Spain's intelligence services are investigating the role of British and American media in fomenting financial turmoil.
Anglo-Saxon media out to sink us, says Spain

A score of eminent economists today attacked the government's strategy to tackle the budget deficit as not "credible", calling for cuts to begin as soon as the general election is over.
Top economists attack Labour plan to tackle Britain's budget deficit

In a visit to the Gulf emirate, the Business Secretary urged its leaders, and the managers of stricken group Dubai World, to come up with details of how investors in its troubled units will be treated, or face further investment exodus. However, the company - effectively a state offshoot - has not yet provided any details on an offer, according to a spokesman, adding that it wanted to give creditors time to digest Dubai World's business plan.
Time running out for Dubai to pull itself out of danger, says Lord Mandelson

Fears over the prospect of a jobless recovery gathered pace today as two major reports on the labour market signalled that the outlook for workers and jobseekers was deteriorating despite the fledgeling growth in the economy.
Fears grow over prospect of 'jobless recovery'

Since its launch in March 2007, Chi-X Europe has built a market share approaching 30 per cent in FTSE 100 stocks dealt in London. Within this service is the provision of real-time data on share trades on Chi-X and prices. While the LSE charges for this and other information, Chi-X has, since its inception, been required to offer this for free. As the new exchanges market share grew, observers were expecting it to start to charge. The larger and more liquid a market, the more indicative and, therefore, the more valuable such data. But Mr Haynes pledged that he would never expect customers to pay for the information.
Were going to be No 1, upstart rival warns LSE

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	HANG SENG	SHANGHAI COMPOSITE

KOSPI	SENSEX
NYMEX CRUDE	GOLD	VIX

It's Lunar New Year in Asia so the Hong Kong, Chinese and Korean markets are closed.

Good morning traders!

In Japan today, the Nikkei was down 59.91 points at 10,032.28. The Hong
Kong markets are closed for Chinese New Year celebrations.

US markets will remain closed today for a public holiday.

Crude oil traded at $74.23 a barrel on Nymex.

Gold settled at $1,092 an ounce.

Happy Monday!

G.

AMEC Citigroup: upgraded to buy
BARC Citigroup: reiterated buy, tp raised to 420 from 413
GSK JPMorgan: upgraded to neutral from underweight, tp 1350
KGF Deutsche: reiterated buy, tp 350
LAM Citigroup: reiterated buy
LLOY Citigroup: reiterated buy, tp raised to 70 from 69
RBS Citigroup: upgraded to buy from hold, tp raised to 35.5 from 34
RIO Merrill: reiterated buy, tp 4800
RR. Citigroup: downgraded to hold from buy
RR. UBS: reiterated sell, tp raised to 400 from 360
WSM Citigroup: reiterated sell

Morning Kyoto. Thanks for the data.
Another week ahead and turmoil persists. Nothing changes.
It would be nice to see a positive jump in the markets as I'm fed up with all of the doom and gloom.

Opening Market Overview

I think Greece and Europe are hopeless. If they do a deal it will probably fall apart politically after a while because the voters won't stand for the austerity (Greece) and risk (Germany).

I'm fed up with the doom and gloom but that's the dish we've been served. What I really can't stand though are these journalists and bearish commentators dancing on the table in delight at the sight of Europe and the UK falling apart economically. I read the FT's Markets Live every day and they can barely disguise their glee. This is going to come down on all our heads eventually. I guess some people take more pleasure in seeing the destruction of things rather than the building of them.

I can just short everything and through necessity probably will if that's the way it's going to go, but I've realised lately I hate having these ringside seats every time the world descends into crisis, and I dispise the kind of people it brings out of the woodwork. Think I need a break :-)

I'm short a FTSE binary this morning. Hope I'm wrong. Otherwise I'm waiting until tomorrow to see if the EU can pull a rabbit out of their hat.

Kyoto, you might be right about your binary bet. 2 Way agree with you. They posted their Monday commentary as follows:
FTSE
Sell on rallies towards 5170 and target 5138. Stop above 5182.
OK they've had their stop hit already but they obviously think declines are still the order of the day.

End-of-day Market Overview