things looking a bit bouncy in the us, page-10

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3084728/Prepare-for-a-tense-day-as-bailout-talks-stall.html

Prepare for a tense day as bailout talks stall
Congress continues to wrangle over US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's plan, but you have to believe that some form of accord will come out of Capitol Hill by the end of today.


We can expect wildly gyrating markets during today's session, as rumour and counter-rumour permeate through the closed doors, where negotiations are taking place.

Several Republican Senators (let alone the odd Democrat) are unhappy about being bounced into such a serious action with so little information.

It is often the small print on which actions such as this flounder, and the plan has hardly been thought through yet, let alone enshrined in law. Even if there is broad agreement, it might be quite a while before the first loan is acquired by the 'Bad Bank'.

To concentrate their minds, the Federal Reserve overnight wiped out Washington Mutual in the biggest US banking failure in history. JP Morgan has now ridden to the rescue once again, and has picked up the full branch network for just $1.9bn.

With the discussions in Washington on a knife edge it would take either a brave, or a foolhardy trader to leave themselves exposed over the weekend.