SNAPSHOT - Financial crisis - 1000 GMT

NEWS

- Pan-European indices hit 5-year lows, Japan's Nikkei
registers biggest one day drop since 1987 crash.

- G7 finance ministers, central bankers, gather in
Washington

- U.S. considering guaranteeing billions of dollars of bank
debt and temporarily insuring all U.S. bank deposits, Wall
Street Journal says

- Russia's lower house of parliament passes two anti-crisis
packages worth $86 billion

- Oil falls $4 to one-year low and International Energy
Agency cuts demand forecast for 2008 to lowest rate in
percentage terms since 1993. Gold rises to 2 1/2 month high; yen
falls back against euro after hitting a three-year high

- IMF activates emergency financing mechanism

QUOTES

"It's time for the 'kitchen sink' -- as in, throw everything
there is at the problem and in such scale that the 'shock and
awe' break the current cycle of fear," Charles Diebel, a rate
strategist at Nomura, said in a note to clients.

"There's nothing left for us to trust... Investors are
scurrying to convert to cash. A lack of confidence is coupling
with panic." - Takashi Ushio, Marusan Securities

"If there's something the IMF can do, I want them to do it
flexibly. Japan will cooperate with that, including providing
funds for it," Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa

"... because this is a global problem, it requires a global
solution." - British PM Brown

UPCOMING (Times in GMT)

FRIDAY

G7 finance ministers and central bankers meet in Washington

1400 - Bush statement

2245 - Paulson news conference

2300 - Trichet news conference

SATURDAY

G7 finance ministers and central bankers meet in Washington

South Korean, Japanese finance ministers to meet in
Washington

Sarkozy, Merkel meet in France

MONDAY

Annual meeting of IMF/World Bank in Washington

U.S. fixed-income markets closed, Columbus Day