Morning Round Up

European equities rose on Tuesday morning, buoyed by gains to financials such as UK mortgage lender Northern Rock. The Times says that the company is expected to announce later this week that it has reacheda deal with the Bank of England to give it more time to hammer out a rescue package.
 
Bloomberg, meanwhile, reports that Northern Rock states that the government will guarantee all customer deposits until financial markets calm down.
 
Private equity bosses, which have been in the political firing line over their supposedly unfair UK tax advantages, could see their tax bills soar. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is to unveil large tax rises in a bid to win back popularity for the government (last week, the Tories proposed imposing a flat-rate tax charge on non-domiciled people living in the UK).
 
On a related note, Reuters reports that Darling may be tempted to make a number of major tax and spending changes to win back the political initiative from the Tories, possibly leading to higher borrowing.
 
The euro fell against the dollar to the lowest level for two weeks, pressured by expectations that international policymakers may try to force the single currency down from its recent highs at the forthcoming G7 meeting on 19 Washington, reports Bloomberg. The euro is currently trading around $1.4043

Bloomberg has an interesting story on how oil producing nations of OPEC, flush with cash due to high oil prices, have been massive purchasers of US Treasury bonds. OPEC members raised their holdings of Treasuries by 12% this year through July to $123.8bn. Oil prices have risen 31% since December last year.

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