Daily FNArena News - FYI

Who cares about the great unwashed’s dodgy mortgages when one of the world’s biggest banks wants to merge with another of the world’s biggest banks.

The fear is that the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US will spill over into reduced consumer spending, and recession, leading to a global recession. Is this justified?

A quiet week in Australia, but the US releases various housing market data and the Fed makes a rate decision on Wednesday.

Weekly musings of your editor. Normally on Wednesday, but this week on Friday. Because we are flexible at FNArena and we hope you are too.

This Friday sees futures and options on share indices and stocks expire simultaneously in the US. Usually the market rallies ahead of the event. Will it this week?

The Dow lost 242 points last night as a nervous market responded poorly to retail sales figures and more hysteria on the sub-prime mortgage front.

Respected Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Jen attacks a few misconceptions about the power of the yen carry trade.

Macquarie analysts believe equity markets actually look stronger than they did a month ago, but elsewhere gold appears to have problems.

Another week of important US data this week follows Friday’s comforting non-farm payroll number.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has again lifted interest rates, but this is likely to prove the last hike in the cycle.