The EU has realised its fudge and delay manner of dealing with the sovereign debt crisis is no longer feasible. After two years of drip drip information and assurances that no-one believed (bar maybe the EU leaders themselves) the crisis could come to a head over the next six months. Spanish and Italian bond rates continue to rise and if those two countries get into serious trouble, their rescue is beyond the means of the EU as it currently stands.

Moody's rating agency has warned that the US may lose its AAA credit rating in a few weeks if politicians fail to agree to increase the country's legal borrowing limit. The country had been placed on negative watch by the agency on 18th April, meaning a downgrade is possible though not definite.

Saudi Arabia has slashed oil output by 800,000 barrels per day in March saying the market was oversupplied. The move is the strongest yet that OPEC is unconcerned about rising oil prices that have surged past $125 this month and remained consistently above $100. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates supported Saudi Arabia's position.

Ernst and Young have launched a High Court action in Ireland to stop an investigation into its auditing of Anglo Irish Bank. The bank has lost billions of euro on speculative loans made to developers and builders during the boom years in Ireland. Taxpayers have so far put 29 billion euro into the bank which is in the process of being wound down, although the final amount could be higher still.