SPANISH EFFORTS TO AVOID GOING DOWN GREEK DEBT ROAD - While all eyes have been on Greece and the country's debt problems, the Spanish government has been working hard to avert a similar crisis. Spain has one of the biggest unemployment problems in the developed world and its government is trying to bring about labour market reform to tackle it.
Jonathan House the deputy bureau chief in Madrid for Dow Jones Newswires - says that last night the Spanish government presented its ideas to the social partners, and they hope to agree a deal by the end of this month
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MORNING BRIEFS - The Dow Jones closed above 11,000 for the first time in almost 19 months overnight ahead of company earnings for the first three months of the year coming out. Also in the US, the S&P is at an 18 month high and the Nasdaq is at a 15 month high. Analysts expect earnings season to to be very good - gains are expected to be driven by the financials, materials and consumer discretionary, which is the sector that includes cars and retailers. Intel reports results tonight, while Google, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are due later in the week.
*** AIB is to close its international corporate banking offices in Sydney, Houston, Leeds and Edinburgh following a review. The bank will continue to have corporate banking teams in Ireland, the UK and US.
*** According to its annual report, former Irish Life and Permanent chief executive Denis Casey was paid €4.7m in 2009. This included a severance package of €1.25m, after he stood down when the controversial deposits into Anglo Irish Bank came to light. €369,000 of the €4.7m total was salary, and €2.93m went to his pension plan. Denis Casey resigned in February last year after it emerged the bank had supported Anglo Irish Bank with short-term deposits of €7.45 billion the previous year.
*** Other annual reports out this week show that Smurfit Kappa's chief executive Gary McGann's pay fell by just over 5% last year to a total of €2.23m. Fyffes chairman David McCann was paid a total of €1.2m last year, a slight increase in 2008.
***The euro jumped sharply against the dollar and the pound after the euro zone agreed details of a multi-billion euro loan package to Greece. The euro rose by two cents, or 1.5%, against the dollar, to $1.3672, before slipping slightly. And against the pound, it rose by 0.75 pence to 88.45 pence. This morning the euro is trading at $1.3579 cents and 88.41 pence sterling.
