Barclays capital has launched three indices for tracking foreign exchange unpredictability. They hope the products will provide both varied long-term investment and protection against market downturns in the short term.

Each of the indices have been designed to be used in a variety of structures and investment purposes, and it will be possible to generate tracker funds for investors as well as underlying for structured products.

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.

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.