Quick Overview

• RBS fell almost 67% after warning that it could face losses of up to £28bn for 2008 - the largest ever in UK corporate history.
  

• The U.K. has taken the first step towards quantitative (=printing) easing by authorizing the Bank of England to buy up to £50bn of private sector assets as part of a wider drive to get banks lending again.
  

• Germany's top 20 banks still have around 300 billion Euros of toxic securities on their books and have written off only a quarter of that, according to an official survey, SPIEGEL reports.
  

• The total cost of the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States will likely top $150 million.
  

• Hungary cut its interest rate to 9.5% from 10% – the fourth 1/2 point cut in less than two months.

• Standard & Poor cut Spain’s credit rating from AAA+ to AA
  

• Czarnikow estimates a global sugar shortfall of 5.8 million tons this year. Indian production is now estimated at 18 MT compared with 19.2 MT forecast in Dec.