That's it for this week. We shall be back on Monday morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 06:00.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones average closed 103 points lower at 18,013. The S&P 500 ended the day 12 points down at 2,110. And the Nasdaq also closed lower, 16 points down at 5,117.

On the foreign exchanges the pound currently buys you 1 dollar 58.7 and 1 euro 39.9.

The Russians are very upset indeed about the seizure of Russian state assets in Belgium, Austria and France. They have been taken over because last year an international arbitration court, in The Hague, decided that Russia had to pay £32bn in compensation to former shareholders in the now-defunct Yukos oil firm. The speaker of the Russian State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin, compared the seizures to medieval robbery. "Once, in the Middle Ages, robbery was quite widespread as a form of economic activity, highway robbery, or in the woods," he said. "But in those days robbers were hairy men with daggers and swords, and later with pistols and rifles. Nowadays these robbers are quite well-dressed and often well-educated but in the moral sense they are the same robbers as in the Middle Ages," he added.

Image source, Reuters

The Petrobras scandal in Brazil has spread further. Two top Brazilian businessmen in the construction industry have been arrested as part of the continuing investigation into corruption at the state-owned oil company. One of the two men is Marcelo Odebrecht, head of the Odebrecht group which is Latin America's biggest construction group. The other is Otavio Azevedo, head of another construction firm called Andrade Gutierrez. The scandal hinges on allegations that many firms made corrupt payments to Petrobras officials to obtain contracts from the company.

Not surprisingly, Tata Steel says it is pleased that next Monday's strike by its workforce, over pension changes, has been called off. It says its existing final-salary pension scheme will now be "modified". "The decision recognises the substantial shortfall in the pension fund and the need to jointly address it, given the challenging business environment in the UK." It adds: "The recommended proposal includes fair and balanced modifications to existing scheme arrangements to achieve this."

A senior advisor to US President Barack Obama has said that Greece and its creditors should work together to find a solution to the continuing debt wrangle. Caroline Atkinson, Deputy National Security Advisor for international economics, said that the White House believed it was important for both sides to look for a way forward.

...says Capital Economics. It thinks that the departure of Greece from the eurozone may now be "more likely than not". "We do not buy the view that Greece would slip out of the eurozone without a ripple," it says. "Should it become clear that a major default and exit are indeed coming soon, we will pull down our projections for growth across the rest of the eurozone this year and next, possibly to predict a renewed recession." Food for thought.

Image source, Reuters

A debt crisis is coming to the boil in Ukraine. The country has been negotiating with its bond holders over the repayment of $23bn worth of the country's borrowings. The finance minister, Natalia Yaresko, said her country would stop its repayments if the bond holders did not agree a "last chance" offer in today's talks. It seems Ukraine wants its lenders to write off a lot of the money it owes to them, perhaps as much as 40%.

Two more Swiss banks have agreed to pay penalties for helping US citizens avoid US taxes. The US Justice department said they were Bank Linth and Bank Sparhafen Zurich (BSZ). They will pay $4.15m and $1.81m respectively. Eleven other banks have struck similar deals since 2013.

BBC Radio 4

On the PM programme on Radio 4, Eddie Mair spoke to a Greek stockbroker, Elias Lazaris of Eurotrust Security. "There is some concern here," Mr Lazaris said, "but not panic yet". He added: "We are highly optimistic about this summit on Monday, and we see it as possibly the last opportunity for an agreement."

In London the 100 share index closed 3 points higher at 6,710. In Paris the Cac-40 index rose 12 points to 4,815. And in Frankfurt the Dax fell 60 points to 11,040. On the foreign exchanges the pound hardly moved at 1 dollar 58.7 and 1 euro 40.

Mr Tusk has had more to say to the Greeks. "We are close to the point where the Greek government will have to choose between accepting what I believe is a good offer of continued support or to head towards default. At the end of the day, this is and can only be a Greek decision and a Greek responsibility. There is still time, but only a few days." George Osborne, the UK chancellor, has chipped in too: "We hope for the best, but now we must be prepared for the worst."

Image source, NASA

The Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) says that more than a third of all new mortgages are scheduled to last beyond the borrowers' 65th birthdays. It says this is due to people spreading their loans over longer terms, and to people buying a property at older ages than before. It is happening even to first-time buyers. Apparently 21% of them are now taking on mortgage loans that will not be paid off until they are aged over 65.

A US subsidiary of BAE Systems has been accused of overcharging the US army to build 20,000 military trucks. US authorities claim that the company inflated the cost of materials during contract negotiations.

Image source, PA

The impending national strike of workers at Tata steel has been called off. The four unions will put a new deal in their pension dispute to a consultative vote of their members. And they are recommending acceptance. "Now we've got a deal that means the scheme is open, the importance of early retirement is recognised and the challenges faced by the scheme are addressed. Of course now it's up to our members but the unions are recommending acceptance," said a GMB union official. The work-to-rule and overtime ban have been suspended while the consultation takes place.

Image source, AFP

The President of the European Union, Donald Tusk, has been explaining why he called an emergency summit meeting, external of eurozone heads of state for next Monday. He likes his cliches. "The game of chicken needs to end, and so does the blame game. Because this is not a game and there is no time for any games. It is reality with real possible consequences, first and foremost for the Greek people."

Image source, Reuters

The Reuters news agency from Athens, citing "three bankers", says Greeks have taken a further 1.2bn euros out of their accounts today. That seems to take the total outflow this week to about 4.2bn euros. So it is just as well that the European Central Bank has agreed to provide additional emergency funding to Greek banks.

Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland

tweet:, external Limited partnership law could be turning Scotland into a front for large-scale international money laundering.

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The Bank of England has published new figures today for the lending of UK banks to foreign countries. These show that the banks have drastically reduced their lending to Greece in the last quarter, from $8.4bn to $31m. The UK's overall exposure to Greece now is just over $3bn - which includes the banks ($31m), public sector ($154m) and companies ($3bn). Don't know why they publish the figures in dollars, but they do.

Image source, Getty Images

A man called Adam Hawkins has been sent to jail for six years and nine months for helping to run a land banking scam. More than 100 people lost at least £4.3m after "investing" in three companies that Hawkins helped to run. The investors were cold-called and persuaded to pay vastly over the odds for cheap agricultural land, which they were told could be sold later at a vast profit. The firms were Plott UK, European Property Investments (UK), and Stirling Alexander. The judge said the fraud had been both "subtle and cruel". Seven other people have already been jailed after a previous trial.