Global

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded the EU bailout fund to AA+ from AAA.

It's our round-up of the stories your clients may have read in the nationals over the weekend and this morning...

The decision by Standard & Poor's to strip France of its prized AAA-rating came as no surprise to a number of fund managers.

The UK is already back in recession and will not see any interest rate rises until at least 2016, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

The financial crisis engulfing the eurozone took a fresh twist last night after Standard & Poor's cut the credit rating on nine eurozone countries, including France's AAA rating, and Greece's debt talks collapsed without agreement.

The British economy just managed to achieve growth in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

Charlotte Richards finds out how US managers have navigated a difficult period and assesses the impact the eurozone crisis has had on the market.

Philip Saunders and Max King from the Investec Global multi-asset team give their predictions for the year ahead.

Britain can expect an imminent market crash when building work on skyscraper The Shard near London Bridge is completed, according to Barclays Capital.

The UK economy has "significantly weakened" with domestic demand at a two-year low, but a recession is not inevitable, the latest quarterly survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) concludes.