Morning all. Friday's market reports:
Telegraph
The Times
The Times (Need to know)
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money
Saturday
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, speaking after an emergency summit of eurozone leaders on Friday, said an intervention unit designed to fend off speculative attacks against euro members would be in place by Monday when the financial markets reopen.
Eurozone leaders agree deal to stamp out Greek debt contagion
The pound, gilts and equities all came under huge selling pressure yesterday as traders - already punch-drunk from Thursdays violent convulsions on Wall Street - digested the news that Britain had elected a hung Parliament for the first time in 36 years.
Pound is hung out to dry as the nations indecision takes its toll
One factor being discussed last night was to persuade the ECB to launch a new quantitative easing policy - entailing huge loans to distressed governments in the form of buying up their bonds. Alarm bells were ringing in major capitals across the world where leaders voiced their exasperation with European attempts to contain the fallout from Greece.
Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot
The Greek financial crisis is filtering into the banking market, where worries about the exposure of Europes leading lenders to weak eurozone governments are raising the cost of insuring bank debt.
French banks catch cold amid fears of exposure in Greece
Carnage. Weve become inured to days of extreme volatility in the credit markets but today was extraordinary even by recent standards. The Markit iTraxx Europe index was trading at 146bp, an astonishing 26bp daily move. It closed at the paltry level of 134bp.
CDS wrap: Carnage
One of the grimmest weeks on European bourses since the dark days of late 2008 ended with a slight melt-up on Friday, compared to earlier losses - thanks to rumours of a European Central Bank rescue.
Rumours of ECB bailout calm markets
Spain provided the beleagured eurozone with respite yesterday, revealing that its economy had finally emerged from recession. The Bank of Spain said its initial estimate of economic performance in the first quarter of 2010 was for growth of 0.1 per cent, suggesting that the final large Western country to still be mired in recession has now escaped the slump.
Spain's economy finally puts recession behind it
The oil price is on course for its worst trading week of the year. Crude stabilised at around $77 a barrel today following an 11% sell-off this week. On Monday, it had been trading at an 18-month high of more than $87.
Oil price on course for a one week plunge of 11%
Argentina has threatened to defend its rights and interests after the first sizeable discovery of oil in disputed waters off the Falkland Islands, a find that has racheted up tensions with Britain.
Argentina denounces British pirates after oil discovery in Falklands waters
Sunday
EU leaders have agreed a financial defence plan in an attempt to protect the eurozone countries from speculative attacks in the wake of the Greek debt crisis. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said today that an "intervention unit" designed to preserve financial stability in the 16 eurozone countries would be in place by Monday when the markets reopen.
Debt crisis: EU leaders announce 70bn plan to protect euro
As Britain's political leaders negotiate and plot through the weekend, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, will today attend a meeting of the European Commission and EU finance ministers. European leaders are to agree a hugely controversial bailout today to avert a "systemic crisis" of the single currency, with Britain under intense pressure to participate.
Alistair Darling joins EU plan to rescue sinking euro
FEARS of a market slump mounted this weekend after British politicians failed to form a government and senior bankers warned that the eurozone crisis might cause bank lending to seize up.
Leaderless UK stokes crash fears
The Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates at a record low when it announces its latest decision against a backdrop of political and market turmoil tomorrow, but experts warn the chances of an increase are rising.
Chances of a base rate hike are rising, though Bank is expected to hold at 0.5%
The UK has been so immersed in political fever that another highly significant election has gone almost unnoticed. When Germans go to the polls in state elections today, at stake will be not only the future of Angela Merkel's ruling coalition in Berlin, but also the direction of Europe's biggest economy.
Disgruntled Germans go to polls with Merkel's coalition under threat
But for those on the left, leading the protests with flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, the intervention of the IMF has been the tipping point. The majority of Greeks not only see it as the harbinger of harsh economic reforms but the symbol of foreign occupation. For the abundance of conspiracy theorists on both the left and right, its involvement is part of a grander, but seemingly no less implausible, plan to subjugate Greece after draining the country of its resources.
The Greek spirit of resistance turns its guns on the IMF
American regulators are considering a radical overhaul of share trading to "slow markets down" following the chaos this week which saw the Dow Jones lurch to its biggest intraday fall since Black Monday in 1987.
SEC launches share trade inquiry
If share dealing was once defined by cries and waving slips of paper, now it is almost purely driven by the need for speed - and a new breed of company is eagerly taking advantage. Where humans once prevailed, computers have taken over.
Trading at the speed of light
Monday
European leaders were forced today into radical action in an attempt to save the euro, agreeing for the first time to erect a safety net worth tens of billions for member states in distress. They also wrangled over a much more ambitious scheme to issue guarantees from eurozone governments to raise hundreds of billions on the markets.
EU ministers pledge billions in a gamble to save the euro
Alistair Darling has caved into a demand that British taxpayers underwrite at least 10bn of debt held by other European governments, amid fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread.
Darling agrees to give 10bn to Europe bail-out
Foreign investors may be able to launch legal action against the Australian government over its plans to introduce a super-tax on the mining industry, leading trade lawyers have said.
Anger at Canberra super-tax on miners
Economists feel the MPC will mark time on both interest rates and quantitative easing because the recovery is still too fragile and there is no enthusiasm for adding to market uncertainties by tightening policy at this stage.
MPC expected to keep rates steady amid uncertainty
A hung Parliament has left Britain at a huge disadvantage in negotiating the final wording of a controversial EU directive that will clamp down on hedge funds and private equity.
Hedge fund directive strikes blow at City
On paper, Japans fiscal position looks irretrievably horrendous. It is worse, by some measures, than that of Greece and notably without any clear exit strategy. Gross public debt has edged up to 200 per cent of GDP. Net debt, at 100 per cent of GDP, is still in acutely dangerous territory. Persistent deflation, low real growth and the worlds most rapidly ageing population are poor ingredients for debt stabilisation.
Japan in risky territory: Things could turn ugly fast
Corus sale ... BT charges ... BP clean-up ...
Need to know