Friday markets: Financials hit as Fannie Mae slashes dividend

Market news has been dominated by RBS' pre-tax loss for Q1 and Q2 of £691m today - reportedly the sec...

Market news has been dominated by RBS’ pre-tax loss for Q1 and Q2 of £691m today - reportedly the second-biggest loss in UK bank history. The bank admitted it has seen £5.9bn of write-downs, although much larger losses had been anticipated – shares of the blue-chip rose 2.7%. News that Fannie Mae slashed its dividend from 35 cents a share to 5 cents a share dragged down financials worldwide. At 14:54 the FTSE 100 was down 0.78% at 5434.6 points although the Dow Jones had mustered a modest 0.11% rise to 11443.57. And the euro has seen its biggest fall against the dollar in four years ...