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Daily View - 14th April...

After a weekend of golf and soccer where it was almost possible to take your mind off the dire situation in the financial markets, Monday morning has proved with a jolt that its business as usual. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are set to unearth further losses this week proving that we've still yet to have heard the last of write-downs. In the process, billions more dollars are due to knock US banking profits for six and uncertainty is growing as not even the banks know exactly how much their balance sheets have been depleted by. Such was the abuse and miss-selling of these mortgage backed securities that the markets are set for another turbulent few weeks.

The good news is that all this was the centre of discussions at the meeting of the G7 finance ministers this weekend. The bad news is that its difficult to see what was achieved from all the talk apart from a few calls for further regulation.

The FTSE call this morning has been spot on, coming in to open 50 points lower around the 5845 mark. The market wasn't helped by a weak close from US markets on Friday evening and a move lower by Asian markets overnight. Japan's Nikkei fell by as much as 3% and in Shanghai stocks suffered a 5.5% move into the red.

The Dollar briefly benefited from the comments made by G7 finance ministers who voiced their concern over excessive currency fluctuations, but already the Euro has recovered from its overnight lows of 1.5670 back to the 1.5770 mark.

Gold as a result is also lower this morning around $921, having been as low as $914 in the Asian session. The Dollar's little recovery against all the other majors has led to a little pressure on metal prices, but the feeling in the market is that the trend is not over.