MARKETS WELCOME ECB MOVES TO HELP BANKS - Europe's stock markets have been gaining on the news of fresh help from the European Central Bank yesterday. The bank is providing new streams of ultra cheap money to euro zone banks and offering to buy up to €40 billion worth of bonds.
Ciaran O'Hagan, the head of fixed income research at Société Générale in Paris, says the ECB moves are not a panacea or ''a Eureka moment'' for the euro zone. He says that while the bond programme is not a huge amount it will help restore confidence. He says the ECB measures are good for both banks and euro zone governments as it will now be easier for banks to buy government bonds.
Mr O'Hagan says the moves should go some of the way to avert a credit crunch in the euro zone. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are due to meet over the weekend again and their talks will focus on the problems in the banks, in Greece and the general euro zone debt concerns, he says.
On rates, Mr O'Hagan says that interest rates will move lower and predicts substantial cuts from the ECB over the coming months. He says this is good news for the euro zone and the world economies and points out that the mortgage rate in the US has gone down below 4% for the first time ever.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Aer Lingus has reported a 2.9% rise in passenger numbers in September. The airline said its numbers rose to 954,000 from 927,000 the same time last year. The number of short-haul passengers rose by 2.5% to 862,000 while long haul booked passengers increased by 7% to 92,000.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth $1.3429 cents and 86.8 pence sterling.
