Was she in bed too??

Welcome back Alan!

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

Telegraph
The Times
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

Saturday

The office of the London Mayor, the Liberal Democrats, Labour MPs and the unions are not the most obvious of bedfellows. On Friday, though, the unlikely alliance joined in praise of the US bank "super-tax".
Barack Obama eases way for bank taxes in UK and worldwide

The prospect of the Bank of England raising interest rates will help drive sterling up to $1.85 in three months, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs.
Sterling to enjoy rally against dollar, Goldman predicts

Economies will find the painful process of deleveraging harder than in previous crises because of the global nature of this one, according to a new report from management consultants McKinsey.
The debt crisis in graphs

Word reaches me the online brokerage company is back in talks about a sale, talks that are so advanced it has had to shut down applications for new accounts.
E-Trade in talks, shop shut up

Background: Shares in Meldex were suspended in December 2008 as the Cambridge-based drug company told investors it was seeking to clarify its trading and working capital position. A year later and the full story has now emerged and it is not pretty.
Another one for the Aim Hall of Shame

Sunday

BRITAINs inflation surge, to be revealed in figures this week, will be short-lived, according to a new forecast from the Ernst & Young Item club, which works with the Treasury model.
Fears of inflation surge played down

Britain's recession-hit economy faces a "decade of painful readjustment," and recovery will depend on exporters' success in winning new business from the roaring Asian tigers, the Ernst & Young Item Club predicts today.
Item club predicts a 'painful' recovery dependent on exports to Asia

Chancellor Alistair Darling today ruled out imposing a US-style levy on British banks propped up by the taxpayer despite anger among many Labour MPs at the return of huge City bonuses.
Darling rules out US-style levy on banks

While it may look to the world as if the growth of the eastern giant's economy is unstoppable, there are mounting concerns.
Dark economic clouds on the horizon for China

A Russian mining giant's decision to list in Hong Kong, not London, has blasted the City's bedrock.
Eastern dragon storms into LSE territory

Monday

Fears of a euro break-up have reached the point where the European Central Bank feels compelled to issue a legal analysis of what would happen if a country tried to leave monetary union.
ECB prepares legal ground for euro rupture as Greek crisis escalates

This week the European Commission begins studying Greeces latest plan for extracting itself from its financial crisis. But although the deployment of the Brussels machinery has taken the edge off the drama, any sense that the problem is now contained would be an illusion. The possibility that a country within the eurozone will get to the brink of defaulting on its sovereign debt remains real.
A Greek crisis may well become Germanys problem

Chinas financial regulator has warned the countrys banks to tighten risk controls and to funnel credit towards the real economy only as the banking sector barrels into its second year of roaring loan growth.
After 800bn loans, China tells banks to focus on the real economy

Arvato contract ... Engyco listing ... Starbucks results ...
Need to know

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	HANG SENG	SHANGHAI COMPOSITE

KOSPI	SENSEX
NYMEX CRUDE	GOLD	VIX

Good morning traders! Good to be back!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 166.5 points at 10,815.6, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning off 71.72 points at 21,582.44.

Crude oil traded at $78 a barrel on Nymex.

Gold settled at $1,134 an ounce.

Happy Monday!

G.

BA. Merrill: downgraded to neutral from buy
BVIC Deutsche: downgraded to hold from buy, tp reiterated 420
COB Merrill: downgraded to neutral from buy
EMG Merrill: reiterated buy, tp cut to 390 from 400
ISAT Goldman: downgraded to neutral from buy
QQ. Merrill: upgraded to buy from neutral
RR. Merrill: reiterated neutral, tp raised to 523 from 509
VOD Goldman: downgraded to neutral from buy

Twitter Updates
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Morning folks.
A wonderful non snow day - what a pleasure!
Let's see what today brings.
Am out for most of the morning and so let's hope not too much!

End-of-day Market Overview