Daily FNArena News - FYI

Not every central bank has abandoned the greenback.

The new Bear Stearns deal highlights the Fed’s immediate need to prevent meltdown in the banking system, as central bankers across the globe hook up to spend Easter discussing what else still needs to be done.

Australia is in holiday mode data-wise this week but the US story bungles on.

Financial market issues appear far from finished and this implies further weakness in the US dollar but the speed of recent falls means a short-term bounce is possible.

National Australia Bank doesn’t expect a quick turnaround in the US economy and has revised down its growth forecasts accordingly.

Weekly musings from your editor, who looks like a goose on Thursday morning as the US market did exactly the opposite he thought it would do. Wednesday’s version has been amended.

Higher interest rates will impact on activity in the sector but St George Bank expects Australian residential property prices will grow by 5-10% over the next year.

It has been revealed that as the Fed assisted in orchestrating the end of Bear Stearns on the weekend, it was simultaneously appealing to investment banks to rally around colleague Lehman Bros.

As the Fed steps up its financial market rescue, expectations are increasing that the G7 will be forced to intervene to save the US dollar.

Bear Stearns is small fry compared to America’s large commercial banks. James Turk looks at the biggest of them all – Citibank – and how it shapes up alongside the investment banks.