On Friday a deadline set by Electronic Arts for shareholders of Take-Two interactive software passed. The US video game giant offered shareholders an unsolicited $25.74 per share valued in the reign of $1.9bn, after the Take-Two board of directors rejected the bid as undervaluing the business.

There has been no comment from either company after Friday’s deadline set by EA and it is likely that Take-Two shareholders will hold out for more money. Take-Two’s directors had refused to hold takeover talks before the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29th.

Analysts say that a deal for Countrywide Financial to sell itself to the Bank of America could be at risk. The mortgage lender, which is the third largest in the US, last week announced a loss of $893m in the first three months of 2008, adding to speculation that the Bank of America could renegotiate of walk away from a deal altogether.

In a statement the bank made clear that the deal was still on by saying that the $4bn transaction was “on track to close as agreed”.

It was announced this week that the largest US bank, Citigroup, has launched an online trading platform which is aimed at retail investors and institutional dealers. The platform has initially been released in the US, and wil be rolled out to the rest of the world over the coming months.

Citigroup and the Copenhagen based Saxobank have developed the CitiFX Pro platform which is based on the successful Saxotrader. The new platform will offer traders over 130 currency pairs with streaming prices, news and one click trading.

There is speculation that the Federal bank will be cutting interest rates in a move to try to stabalise the current market place. There is a great amount of nervousness as the dollar continues to weaken.

Yesterday say huge falls in not only the dollar but the pound, which took the pound to a six day low against the dollar and a new record low against the Euro.

HSBC announced a loss of $17.2bn on those investements which are linked to the credit crisis, this was much higher than expected. HSBC overall annual profits still went up by 10%. All five of the big UK banks have suffered loss through the credit crisis, although HSBC seems to be the hardest hit.

HSBC Chairman Stephen Green said he thought the years ahead looks uncertain. HSBC did see strong growth in the Asian businesses.

The decision on interest rates is not an easy one to make for the US Federal Reserve. Production prices in the US have risen steeply to a rate last seen back in October 1981.

The indicator on producer prices rising is that the retail market will also follow. The simple fact is that if inflation prices rises much more there will be no chance of cutting interest rates.

The limitation which could be imposed on the Federal Reserve is clear.

Yesterday saw the Yen drop compared to most other currencies. The data released on US retail sales is thought to have had a major impact. Sales gained 0.3% for the month of January 2008 despite the expected financial experts feelings it would decline by 0.3%.

The US are now worrying less about a recession within the economy after seeing the growth in retail sales. This should be some comfort to the rest of the global economy.

There is it seems only limited scope for further interest rate cuts from the UK. The rate at which cuts will be implemented is to slow down sharply towards the end of 2008.

Inflation though will be over the target of 2% as set by the government and there are thoughts that the rise could be as much as 3%.

The Monetary Policy Committee does not plan to cut rares as much as the markets had anticipated. We know that there is a fine balancing act which needs to take place between interest rate cuts and the rise of inflation.

Economic talks are to take place at a high level soon betweeen the US embassy and the Moscow embassy - well this is what Moscow tells us.

It seems that past disagreements have been overlooked for the sake of economic strength. The talks should happen in Washington, spring time.

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