Daily News Report

Markets in a Flash
• Asian equity markets finished up overnight to start the week’s trading. The exception to this is Japan who saw a small fall of less than 1%.
• European equity markets are pretty much flat this morning with no real direction prior to the US open.
• BP Plc has continued its rebound this morning on the LSE. The share price has risen by 7% this morning.
• Commodities futures are slightly lower this morning. Oil is at $75.65 while Gold is at $1207.20.
• The GBP is looking weak today as it is down against all other major currencies. GBP/USD broke the 1.5000 level to the downside.
• US equity futures are showing small falls suggesting a slightly lower open.

News Focus
The UK’s recession was worse than initially thought. Previously the economy had been thought to have dropped by 6.2% but new data issued by the Office of National Statistics suggests that the economy contracted 6.4% from peak to trough. This information was released as the ONS also kept the UK’s predicted Q1 growth rate at 0.3%. The ONS had also found and reported that Government spending had risen by 1.5% rather than the 0.5% previously thought
The US Q2 earnings season starts today. Alcoa is the first major company to report their earning later today. The earnings reports from the large US companies are what will possibly be directing the markets in the short term future. A good earnings season should see a strong recovery in the equity markets. Later this week earnings are released by Intel, Google and JP Morgan.
The world’s largest insurance brokerage, Aon, has agreed to purchase Hewitt Associates for about $4.9Bn. The purchase of Hewitt Associates is designed to increase the abilities of Aon in the area of consulting. Aon is offering a premium of 41% over the value of Hewitt Associated according to their Friday closing price.

Coming up Today
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