In the current credit crisis, many of Britain's banks would seem to either need a rights issue or be vulnerable to a takeover bid.
Head of the queue now for rights issues, since Royal Bank of Scotland has bitten the bullet and Barclays has ruled out a cash call, is HBOS, of which more later.
Head of the queue for being taken over appears to be Alliance & Leicester. Its shares have been particularly volatile this week - partly, it is true, because they went ex-dividend. Today they have jumped 21p to 514p.
It seems the bank has recently drawn predatory interest from, for one, HSBC, following A&L's failed takeover talks with Spain's Santander at the end of last year. HSBC is believed to have cast its eyes over the business, but decided that it would prefer to focus on growing its Asian operations.
Still, this does suggest that banking experts believe A&L is firmly in play.
As for HBOS, up 10.5p to 499.5p, the feeling is that if it is going to ask shareholders for money, it may well do so on Monday, ahead of its trading statement the following day.
Now, since it's a Friday, a sign of the times in this tech-obsessed, food-scarce society we are heading for, from the Infectious Greed blog:
Paul Kedrosky writes:
"Speaking of scarcity, the Nintendo Wii is still in strangely short supply. According to the Nintendo of America president, the average Wii sits on the shelf for a vanishingly short hour before being sold.
"I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before people begin bartering them for rice, or vice-versa."
