While France's 50-year OAT is creating a new segment on the euro yield curve, many other sovereigns are making the most of the clamour for long-dated bonds

Portugal's banks have got to grips with the pressures of EU membership much more effectively than the economy as a whole, which has depended on ad hoc measures rather than fundamental structural change to keep on course. But even the banks must expect more consolidation and rationalization.

In the global automotive sector over the past three months, investors have focused on the problems facing GM and Ford.

The EU-induced removal of state guarantees to the Landesbanken has prompted mergers and other inter-bank arrangements. But competition remains a burning issue in Germany's overbanked market and there is room and a need for much more consolidation.

Chairman, CEO and CIO, US Global Investors

The SEC doesn't know how many hedge funds there are and distrusts their secretive ways. Its ruling that they should register with it has prompted claims that it is ultra vires, will raise costs to unsustainable levels and reduce the competitiveness of onshore US funds. Unsurprisingly some funds are seeking ways to sidestep the requirement.

Since taking office in 2003, Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been the man to watch in Latin America, bringing the region's largest economy unprecedented stability and silencing fears that the former steel worker would be unable to handle the country's huge foreign debt. This year, though, Lula faces one of the biggest challenges to his pro-market credentials: the task of pushing an initiative through congress to give the central bank autonomy.

Khathar hunnu bhanda marhu ramro. Or in English: "It is better to die than live a coward." That's the motto of the Brigade of Gurkhas, as London financial sector workers are about to find out.

Having had serial relationships with three global investment banking houses, all of which deals unravelled, Thai investment bank Phatra Securities can be forgiven for wanting to go it alone. Although the firm still enjoys good relations with one ex-partner, the new-found independence clearly suits its style.

With tongue firmly in cheek, regional broker CLSA launched its annual Feng Shui Index report early in February, offering prognostications for the Chinese Year of the Rooster. Now in its 14th year, the report, this time entitled "Rooster Oracles", is a humorous look at what the year might hold for the market in Hong Kong, one of the world's most superstitious places.

CEO, Greenpark Capital