Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Nikkei was down 29.23 points at 7,750.17, while the Hang Seng
ended the morning session down 231.84 points at 13,322.83.

Happy Monday!

G.

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

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

Saturday

When President Barack Obama said during his first televised press conference on Monday night that Tim Geithner would lay out a comprehensive plan to solve the American banking crisis the next day, the new Treasury Secretary was bound to under-deliver.
Timothy Geithner must swiftly fill holes in his bank rescue plan

The French and German economies have sent Europe into a tailspin.
Europe's recession worsens

Ministers have been warned they will be forced to take full control of Lloyds Banking Group after its shares fell by a third amid huge losses.
Government may have to take full control of Lloyds

Sunday

The Group of 7 has reiterated its commitment to avoid protectionist measures following mounting concern over 'beggar my neighbour' initiatives.
G7 rules out protectionism to alleviate economic crisis

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point.
Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

Bondholders with the fate of General Motors in their hands are playing a game of brinkmanship with Barack Obama ahead of a restructuring deadline this week.
Fate of GM and Chrysler in the balance as deadline for loan restructuring looms

The City's 2,000 proprietary traders are to be tested on their financial suitability in a clampdown on potential rogue traders. The move is part of a tough new regime in which the Financial Services Authority will also record interviews before approving directors or dealers to provide evidence in case they lied.
New FSA regime poised to target rogue traders

The government is believed to have drawn up a contingency plan that would involve the wholesale renationalisation of BT, should the company get into financial difficulty, because of the public purse's exposure to the telecom giant's mammoth pension scheme.
'Doomsday' plan to renationalise BT

Monday

The Group of Seven leading finance ministers has been accused of being "asleep at the wheel" after its closely-watched communique on the state of the world economic system merely repeated the same exhortations it has used at summit after summit.
G7 accused of being 'asleep at the wheel'

Japans economy shrank at an annual 12.7 percent pace last quarter, the most since the 1974 oil shock, as recessions in the U.S. and Europe triggered a record drop in exports.
Japans GDP Shrinks 12.7%, Most Since 1974 Oil Shock

Fears are growing that Ireland could default on its national debt after the cost to insure against possible losses on loans to the country rose to record highs at the end of last week.
Growing fears of Irish debt default

Tim Geithner must nationalise some of America's biggest banks and take the total toll of the US bail-out to around $2 trillion, according to one of the world's most prominent economists.
Roubini tells Geithner to nationalise US banks

Chinese exporters are defying their government and unilaterally offering their customers lower-than-official exchange rates on their products to keep their businesses churning out goods.
China exporters offer lower exchange rates to offset strong yuan

NIKKEI 225	AUSTRALIA ASX200	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

KOSPI	VIX	GOLD	NYMEX CRUDE

If any of my poster friends read this they may like to copy it to the Trader's Room.
I have a mate whose wife used to work for TSB and they accumulated many thousands of TSB shares. A huge proportion of their savings is in them. He didn't take my advice to sell a load a couple of years ago when I sold most of my shares - he didn't believe they could possibly fall much. So he watched them drop from 6 to today's level, without selling ANY.
He even bought some more ten days ago when they went back up to 1 (I thought of ringing him to suggest he sell some at 1 but knew he wouldn't, so I didn't).
I have tried to console him by telling him that most people would have (and indeed have) done the same. But I know he will do the same next time. Why do people buy shares if they don't intend to make a profit on them by selling them?

Anyway, just sold some of my ASOS at 26% profit. Think they will probably keep rising, but I have learned my lesson not to be greedy. Always leave some for the next person!

                       LUNCH TIME FUN

Some posters are better getting lost somewhere else ( chinesse delicatesen ) than in this page..........

Maggot is the common name of the larval phase of development in insects of the order Diptera (flies).
Sometimes the word is used to denote the larval stage of any insects.

End-of-day Market Overview