BIG FIRM FEARS BATTER WALL STREET - Wall Street took another tumble last night. All the main markets there closed more than 4% lower on fears for some of the country's biggest companies including insurance giant AIG and General Motors.
Art Hogan, from stockbroker Jefferies & Co in New York, says the US markets have been hitting lows on a minute-to-minute basis over the past few weeks.
Mr Hogan the situation at insurer AIG was disturbing, while problems at General Motors and the finance arm of General Electric were also affecting sentiment.
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CAPACITY CUTS HIT AER LINGUS FIGURES - Aer Lingus has been cutting routes and flights, especially on long haul, so it is not surprising that during February its passenger numbers fell 8.4% compared with the same month last year. The airline served 688,000 passengers in February in total. But the airline's load factor - or percentage of seats filled and a crucial measure for the markets - increased from 66.7% to 72%.
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ROLE FOR MEDIATION IN RENT ROWS - There is a focus today on what is good about mediation over going to court to resolve rows among business people. Commercial mediation is an alternative option for business disputes because it is seen as cheaper and speedier then going to court.
Today the Irish Commercial Mediation Association hosts a conference in Dublin, and is predicting that the workload of mediators will double this year as disputes over high business rents increase.
ICMA spokesman Austin Kenny said that under mediation, more creative arrangements between landlords and tenants could be made which would serve both parties' interests. Mr Kenny said some landlords were moving away from traditional methods of rent payments to others based on a percentage of tenants' turnover.
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CURRENCIES - The euro is worth $1.2726 and 89.4p sterling.
