The Times reports that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is personally fighting to save the proposed rescue of HBOS.

HBOS lost more than £1 bln of its value Tuesday as shares fell by around 20%. The worry now is that Lloyds TSB shareholders will move to block the rescue deal on its current terms. The stockmarket is now valuing HBOS at 35% less than Lloyds is offering in its own shares, so Lloyds shareholders certainly have a case. The vote on the deal is two months away and will need a 75% approval from Lloyds TSB shareholders. Poor old Gordon, he isn’t having an easy time of it.

The Telegraph is reporting that Barratt Dvelopments have offered a huge 43% discount to buyers who take five or more flats or houses off its hands in its Yorkshire East division. The U.K. property market is in truly dire straits and the decline in prices looks like having a long ways to run. Consumer confidence relies heavily on the price of property and in coming months it is going to be shattered. The U.K. economy looks increasingly likely to be headed into recession.

Bloomberg reporting UBS will cut 1900 jobs from its investment banking operation and may also report another write down as early as tomorrow. Not good news for CHF.

Okay, not everyone agree’s but I use the 15:00 EDT (20:00 GMT) close of pit trading on the Chicago IMM as my end of day point for daily data, and today post 1500, nothing happened in major pairs.

US equities did claw back a large chunk of yesterday’s losses with DJIA closing +485.29, S&P500 +58.45 and the NASDAQ Composite +98.60. Treasuries meantime cratered with yields moving sharply higher across the curve with the benchmark 10 -67.5/32 with the yld +.253%.

With that, I’ll leave for the day. Good evening all.

The latest Japanese Tankan report (Q-3) is out overnight (23:50 gmt) and is expected to make sombre reading. It is widely expected headline business sentiment will have turned negative for the first time in five years, confirming a stagnating economy. The median market forecast is calling for large manufacturers index to fall to -2 from 5, and large manufacturers outlook to fall to -3 from 4.

In his post-European Banker of the Year comments he stated “Monetary policy stance aims to anchor inflation”, does that sound like someone who intends to join with other cb’ers in a co-ordinated rate cut?

None event but does nothing for those hoping for any rapid ECB move to ease.

In his post-European Banker of the Year comments he stated “Monetary policy stance aims to anchor inflation”, does that sound like someone who intends to join with other cb’ers in a co-ordinated rate cut?

None event but does nothing for those hoping for any rapid ECB move to ease.

In his post-European Banker of the Year comments he stated “Monetary policy stance aims to anchor inflation”, does that sound like someone who intends to join with other cb’ers in a co-ordinated rate cut?

None event but does nothing for those hoping for any rapid ECB move to ease.

In his post-European Banker of the Year comments he stated “Monetary policy stance aims to anchor inflation”, does that sound like someone who intends to join with other cb’ers in a co-ordinated rate cut?

None event but does nothing for those hoping for any rapid ECB move to ease.

U.S. stocks are doing nicely with the dow presently up some 370 points. This is helping the greenback retain a bid tone, although it has to be said things have calmed a lot compared to the earlier frantic action.  All the same, USD/JPY is posting the days’ high of 106.25 at wrting, the Japanese unit not helped any by the raft of very soft economic data released overnight.

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