Lloyds Banking Group got strong demand for a 9 billion pound ($14.9 billion) bond exchange, an indication of possible appetite for the UK bank's record share issue due to price on Tuesday.

Britain's Labor government, trailing in opinion polls ahead of an election next year, committed to halving a burgeoning budget deficit and said it would curb bankers' pay in draft laws unveiled on Wednesday.

Lehman Brothers has filed a lawsuit against Barclays Capital alleging the British bank took control of excess assets in collusion with Lehman executives when it bought its US brokerage business a year ago.

Bailed-out British lender Lloyds Banking Group is to cut a further 5,000 jobs by the end of 2010 as it continues to overhaul its operations and integrate HBOS.

When you have an initial bid rejected as derisory it is probably not a good idea to come back with a lower offer expecting a big change of heart from your prey.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it would expand its quantitative easing program by 25 billion pounds to help kick-start Britain's recession-hit economy.

The Bank of England's injection of 175 billion pounds ($289 billion) into the economy hasn't yet pulled Britain out of recession, and the central bank now faces a difficult decision on whether to raise the stakes.

Britain's service sector showed its strongest activity since the start of the credit crunch in October, helped by growth in new orders to a two-year high, a purchasing managers survey showed on Wednesday.

The economy and the stock market have very good potential to climb, as the strength of the recovery will surprise many, two market experts told CNBC Tuesday.

The world will slump into a depression similar to that in the 1930s if stimulus measures are pulled out too soon, an economist warned. But investors have a chance to make good money in stock markets, a strategist said.

The Lloyd's of London insurance market cautioned that a strong investment performance from surging share and bond markets would not be sustained and said its full-year expectations were unchanged.

When Dr Doom says the dollar carry trade is about to come to an end and the greenback will soar as equities crash you have to, at the very least, take his predictions seriously. His view is based on the assumption that there is a so-called ‘Wall of Money’ driving recent equity gains and other assets like gold and oil.

Simply beating the street with profits appears to no longer be enough to boost stocks.  Investors want sales to beat if they are going to buy.

The Federal Reserve should raise interest rates now or the US economy will be faced with another bubble, Barron's warned in its cover story; but analysts say this will not happen.

Despite recent warnings that the rally may be over, stock markets face a "meltup" as institutional investors will now feel obliged to buy to deliver returns, Philippe Gijsels, senior equity strategist at Fortis, told CNBC Monday.