Apologies for the delay but I have suffered a major problem here today with
phones and internet all out of service.

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

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

Saturday

The US economy grew at its fastest pace in six years in the last three months of 2009, confirming that the world's largest economy had firmly exited its year-long recession.
US economy roars back to enjoy strongest quarter since 2003

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) "stands ready" to help Greece with its debt crisis, a senior official said yesterday. John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the IMF, said the fund is in "ongoing contact" with the Greek authorities following a "scoping mission" to assess the possibilities.
IMF on standby to aid Greece over debt crisis

Investors should not abandon gilts despite a leading bond investor describing the market as "a bed of nitroglycerine", according to a well known bond fund manager.
Pimco 'is exaggerating threat to gilts'

House prices are on course for double-digit growth on an annual basis next month for the first time in three years, Britains biggest building society said.
House prices set for double-digit increase, Nationwide predicts

Sunday

The Bank of England is poised to follow the US by warning high street banks of the new risks they face from future rises in interest rates and the current upheaval in the bond markets.
Bank of England fears new crisis as quantitative easing ends

THE Bank of Englands monetary policy committee (MPC) is set for a split vote this week on whether to extend its controversial 200 billion programme of quantitative easing, or creating money.
MPC split on further quantitative easing

Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has signalled a regulatory crackdown on foreign exchange carry trades which he insisted served little or no useful social and wider economic purpose.
FSA's Lord Turner signals crackdown on carry trade

EUROPEAN officials will this week set the Greek government a four-month deadline to impose a stringent regime of budget cuts and financial reforms. Leaked documents have revealed Brussels will publish a plan for Greece this week, under the headline Urgent measures to be taken by May 15, 2010.
EU sets tough targets for Greece rescue

Investors in the US, Europe and Asia have all suffered their most significant setback since markets rallied last March but the similarities end there. The triggers for the recent slides are different in each region, and so too are the outlooks for each. Step back from the jitters of the last two weeks and the long-term message is unchanged - the balance of economic and market power is shifting east, and so too should investors.
Eastern promise can't be broken by jitters

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a radical proposal to pump $100bn (62.5bn) of its international currency into the world economy in order to fund an overhaul of how the economy generates growth.
IMF plans $100bn injection into economy to fund energy efficiency

NEARLY three-fifths of the growth in jobs under Labour during a decade in power was directly or indirectly created by the state, new research shows. Across the country as a whole, it says 57% of new jobs created during the period 1997-2007 were state or para-state - dependent on government spending .
Half of new jobs are created by the state

Monday

The "Spirit of Davos" may have won through this weekend, with the first signs of a tentative detente between the world's banks, governments and regulators after a week of sharp debate at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort.
First sign of 'common ground' on bank rules

British house prices are set to rise 6pc this year, the Centre for Economics and Business Research has said, revising its forecast of two to four percent growth made only a month ago.
House prices set to rise by 6pc in 2010

UK property and casualty insurers face a 15bn ($21bn) jump in capital requirements under proposed EU solvency rules to be implemented in 2012, according to a new study.
UK insurers face Solvency II

A growing number of funds that invest in commodities such as coffee, gold or even pigs, are coming under the scrutiny of regulators who fear they could be the next financial bubble to burst.
Commodity funds 'could be next bubble to burst'

The London Stock Exchanges new bonds trading service goes live this morning, offering private investors the chance to buy corporate bonds and gilts in manageable quantities for the first time.
LSE gives private investors chance to trade in bonds

Egg problems ... Ikea sales down ... Endemol dispute ...
Need to know

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	HANG SENG	SHANGHAI COMPOSITE

KOSPI	SENSEX
NYMEX CRUDE	GOLD	VIX

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 9.95 points at 10,207.99, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning off 109.89 points at 20,012.1.

Crude oil traded at $72.56 a barrel on Nymex.

Gold settled at $1,080 an ounce.

Happy Monday!

G.

BAY Goldman: buy, tp raised to 265 from 253
BDEV Deutsche: initiated buy, tp 193
BKG Deutsche: initiated hold, tp 896
BSY JPMorgan: reiterated neutral, tp raised to 615 from 605
BSY RBS: reiterated buy, tp raised to 670 from 630
BVS Deutsche: initiated hold, tp 490
BWY Deutsche: initiated hold, tp 877
EZJ Goldman: buy, tp raised to 430 from 400
HSBA Nomura: reiterated buy
PSN Deutsche: initiated buy, tp 571
RDW Deutsche: initiated buy, tp 168
TW. Deutsche: initiated buy, tp 63

Morning Kyoto. Hope the markets are being kind to you!

Opening Market Overview

Morning TT - er, no. I'm running a medium-term long bias and about two weeks ago on here I posted that I was having serious doubts about the market direction and was thinking of adjusting. Then I got a bit distracted and events overtook me. Running a large 4-figure loss on HMV as well so that's sort of interesting. It's been a bit like amateur hour here but it's lasted several days :-) But everything will work out in the end. Unless it doesn't.

.

I too am running on a longer bias having been burnt on short term trades.
Currently long LLOY and AGK. LLOY has the look of one that should recover but I am in a loss position although it has improved a bit this morning. AGK is a share that I have followed for years and there has been good strength there for a while. As long as the US markets keep going this one powers ahead as well. Has topped out at 930 so far this year and looking for a bit of a recovery before the final results.

I haven't been this badly caught out since the earliest days of the Credit Crisis though, so clearly I've dropped the ball somewhere of late. I like being a bit ahead of the curve and I think what went wrong this time was Obama's sudden decision to announce a bank retribution plan overnight. It's one thing watching what China and Greece are up to and taking a view, but quite another when a politician does something reckless in the name of a cheap political gain. I should have seen that coming after the shock in Massachusetts, but I was too consumed in my liberal rage to think through the consequences :-)

Still, if you're doing the same as everyone else in this game you're one of the 90% of traders who loses money. 'Vive la diffence' - or 'it's OK to be a muppet sometimes'. I think.

TT- I've made surprisingly little on recent short-term shorts in the last couple of weeks so I can relate to that! I think Nomura might have been making some negative comments on LLOY this morning so it's good if it has shaken those off. My system here says that the recent analyst price target average is 80 so currently trading at a 35% discount to that. Mind you, HMV trading at -42% so what does it know? :-)

Probably a lot more than me!
I agree with you about politicians and their big mouths looking for a juicy, and irrelevant, soundbite for the media. Still, we have to put up with them and very occasionally they help the prices rise!
The US had a bad week last week and we are now into a new Month. Perhaps we shall see a bit of a recovery from here? I haven't checked out this week's economic figures so don't have a clue if there is anything significant due out. The weekend papers were talking about banks announcing results soon so you can expect a lot of media and political hype if they make money or pay bonuses, But isn't that what businesses do? And that should be what the politicians want as if the banks get stronger they can sell their "investments" at a profit and tell everyone how sensible it was to invest in them in the first place. Oh how fickle a politician is especially with an election looming.

The banks seem to be damned if they do and damned if they don't at the moment. Still, I'm no fan of the slash-and-burn capitalism the bonus culture creates and I think that's part of the problem. Credit Suisse were talking BARC running a massive capital deficit and maybe needing to raise 23bn(!) to meet new tier-one requirements last week - its a problem shared by other banks and yet most are pressing on regardless with distributing short-term profits to the select few at the top while leaving the capital requirement questions until a later day. It's exactly this type of thinking that got the banks into this mess and I understand why the politicians are privately infuriated by their behaviour.

I'm not convinced this tier-one business has completely gone away and last week wondered if we were a simple change in sentiment away from a second banking crisis. The immediate panic has passed again so let's hope nothing else goes wrong. I think I did quite well out of the Credit Crisis in the end, but I don't need to live through all that again!

Midday Market Overview

LSE Retail Bonds Microsite

72NS XS0097283096 BR.TEL.5T%BDS28 GBP 90.74 0.00 +0.00 Chart
33GL XS0052067583 BR.TEL.8FE% GBP 118.23 0.00 +0.00 Chart
42PU XS0123682758 BRIT.TEL.NTS16 GBP 118.65 0.00 +0.00 Chart
CV11 GB0002215225 CONV.9% 11 GBP 111.59 0.00 +0.00 Chart
47VU XS0163019143 ENTER INNS 2018 GBP 88.85 0.00 +0.00 Chart
34MD XS0381559979 GE CAP.UK 18 GBP 110.93 0.00 +0.00 Chart
AG99 XS0140516864 GLAXOSMSC 5.25% GBP 99.90 0.00 +0.00 Chart
68IH US617446HS12 MORGAN ST.5.375 GBP 105.54 0.00 +0.00 Chart
BD56 XS0094073672 NAT.GRID 5.875% GBP 104.34 0.00 +0.00 Chart
RB51 GB00B3N3WC23 ROY.BK.SC.20 GBP 99.63 0.00 +0.00 Chart
31CL XS0159013068 TESCO5.50% NT19

A tentative test of Barclays and Selftrade suggests that neither are supporting the trading of retail bonds at the moment.

End-of-day Market Overview