A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

With little in the way of corporate news this week, seasonal focus will turn to the expectations of the retail sector, and any little rumour will spark a big reaction. Figures from the Retail FootFall Index (RFI) for the first four days of last week show the year-on-year fall in shopper numbers steadily growing, with a drop of 3.7% compared to the same period in 2006. LloydsTSB (Monday) and HBOS (Thursday) are due to update the City this week and, following a better-than-expected performance from RBoS last week, hopes are high that one or both will have some good news to share with us. Cadbury, in the news last week after announcing plans to cut UK jobs, is due to present its latest trading statistics on Tuesday, with many analysts expecting big things. There aren't a lot of big names scheduled to report this week, but look out for Whitbread (Tuesday), HMV, Rank Group and Johnston Press (Wednesday), GKN and Go-Ahead (Thursday) and Davis Service Group (Friday). Good hunting! Greystone Thanks, as always to Supermum, Kyoto and Digger for their invaluable input to The Traders Thread (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

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

Economists and bankers expect the London inter-bank offered rate (Libor) - the cost of borrowing between banks - to mirror any move in base rates. However, three-month Libor fell just 3 basis points, from 6.64pc to 6.61pc, yesterday after the 25 point cut in base rates to 5.5pc.
Fears as Libor fails to mirror base rate cut

The build-up to the next general election could see interest rates cut to 4% as the Bank of England seeks to avert a crisis in Britain's overstretched housing market, the City was predicting last night.
Bank cuts rate but City now wants more

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to slash staff numbers by up to 15 per cent in the biggest round of job cuts since it was set up in 1945, as the global lender struggles to avoid a financial crisis.
IMF prepares to shed staff as crisis looms for the global lender

Goldman's Global Alpha fund, which has assets of more than $10bn (4.9bn), reported a 6pc fall in November, bringing the decline for the year to 37pc. Meanwhile AQR's $4bn Absolute Return fund is down 11pc on the year, having dropped 6pc last month.
Hedge funds hit by market volatility

Britain's biggest accountants have held a crisis meeting with the Government to ask it how to value billions of pounds of debt stuck on UK banks' balance sheets by the credit crunch.
Accountants seek guidance on bank debt

BRITAIN faces the weakest growth in consumer spending since 1992 because of the impact of the credit crisis on household interest payments and the downturn in the housing market, according to a new analysis.
UK consumer spending to suffer as 'Reset shock' hits homeowners

Britain's 10bn retail property fund industry is balancing on the edge of a liquidity crisis that could force funds to turn away investors looking to withdraw cash.
Run on property funds as buildings fail to sell

Since the 1960s investors have sought ways to get into booming property markets. Most ended in tears.
Stern reminders of earlier property crashes

When the credit crunch struck back in August, many in the City predicted that hard-hit hedge funds would be a ticking time-bomb for the financial markets.
Hedge funds insulated from worst

The benchmark FTSE100 is on course to see its biggest shake-up since the dotcom crash this week in a move that will demonstrate the underlying fallout of the credit crunch crisis. Based on the value of companies on Thursday night, seven blue-chip companies would drop out of the benchmark index in the next FTSE index quarterly shuffle. These include Northern Rock, the stricken mortgage lender, DSG International, the electricals retailer, and Mitchells & Butlers and Punch Taverns, the pub groups.
Credit crisis means FTSE 100 reshuffle

NIKKEI	AUSTRALIA	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

The full scale of the shutdown in debt markets around the world has been laid bare by figures showing that growth in corporate bond markets almost ground to a standstill in the late summer.
Scale of shutdown in debt markets revealed

Bond issuance slumped around the world this summer and the use of derivatives to hedge risk soared as global markets took fright at the credit squeeze, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said.
Worldwide appetite for bonds wanes in wake of credit squeeze

Britain's 10bn retail property fund industry is balancing on the edge of a liquidity crisis that could force funds to turn away investors looking to withdraw cash.
Run on property funds as buildings fail to sell

The countrys leading accounting practices are expecting a rush of insolvency work in the new year, amid fears that the credit crisis will dry up the wall of cash that in the past has saved troubled businesses from going bust.
Accountants predict rise in insolvencies

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was recently down 31.98 points at 15,924.39, while the
Hang Seng reached midway up 95.28 points at 28,937.75.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was
49 cents lower at $87.79 per barrel, from $88.28 in New York on Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

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