Morning all. Market reports:
Telegraph
The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money
Wall Street slumped Thursday, with the S&P 500 plunging to an 11-1/2 year low as fears of a prolonged recession sparked a massive selloff.
S&P 500 sinks to '97 low
Switzerland has slashed interest rates a full percentage point to 1pc in an emergency move, underlining the gravity of the credit crunch now spreading across Europe.
Switzerland's shock rate cut unnerves markets
Germany rebuffed Gordon Brown's push for a co-ordinated fiscal response to the economic crisis yesterday when it rejected EU-wide tax cuts in the growth package to be announced by European Commission next week.
German rejection knocks European rescue plan
Oil prices tumbled below $50 a barrel today for the first time in three and a half years as the slowdown in the global economy dragged down demand for fuel.
Oil falls below $50 a barrel on plunging demand
Wall Street has braced itself for the likelihood that Washington will not approve an emergency $25 billion (16.7 billion) bridging loan to bail out Americas car industry in time to avert the bankruptcy of at least one big manufacturer.
Barack Obama bailout may be too late for US giants
The Treasury was last night seeking to dampen speculation of a huge tax giveaway next week after the latest official figures showed that Alistair Darling will deliver his pre-budget report against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating public finances.
Treasury quells talk of 30bn tax giveaway
The stock market crash has wiped billions of pounds off the value of pension funds, meaning many schemes no longer have enough money to meet future payments. In such cases, companies have little option but to pump extra money into the scheme.
CBI warns that companies face new pensions crisis
Tim Howkins, the chief executive of IG, said that about 40 clients had been badly hit and would take time to repay their betting losses hence the need for the company to make bad-debt provisions.
IGs value plummets by 27% after spread bets on bank shares cause 12m of bad debts in one month