China has become the world’s largest consumer of energy, overtaking the US in absolute consumption of oil, burnt coal, combusted gas and split atoms. China's energy needs have already quadrupled since 1978 and it still derives more than 60% of its energy from coal.

The International energy Agency reported today that China used a total of 2,252m tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the US, which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

China's total energy consumption was just half the size of the US 10 years ago and the US is still by far the biggest energy consumer per capita - - the typical American burns five times as much energy annually as the average Chinese citizen.

Bord na Móna: Bord na Móna today announced its annual results for last year (year ending March 2010) with operating profits of €23.0m compared to €23.8m the previous year.  Turnover was €384m, marginally down 4% compared to €401.5m in 2008/2009.

Operating profits as a percentage of turnover stood at 6.0% compared to 5.9% the previous year. Total numbers employed in the group were on average 2,136, up 72 on the 2,064 figure last year. A dividend of €5m was paid to shareholders ie. the State.

Chief Executive Officer of Bord na Móna, Gabriel D’Arcy, said: “These figures reflect a very solid performance for Bord na Móna in a challenging business environment. Despite the unprecedented weather impact on our feedstock supply and stock losses due to severe flooding we managed to produce a result in line with our expectations. Overall our 2009/10 results support our strategic decision to diversify the business of Bord na Móna away from a reliance on peat"

NAMA: The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has completed the transfer of the second tranche of loans from Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) and EBS. The Agency has acquired loans with a nominal value of €5.2bn. NAMA securities with a value of €2.7bn have been issued to the four institutions. This represents a weighted average discount of 48% for the four institutions on this tranche. Further details are set out below (figures are rounded). Loans will be acquired from the remaining institution – Anglo Irish Bank – over the coming weeks after all necessary due diligence material has been received and evaluated.

The discount on INBS loans is 72% - - suggesting suggesting woeful security/paperwork 

To date, some €20.5bn of loans have been acquired at a consideration of €10.4bn.  

The pan-European Dow Jones 600 has dipped 0.62% Monday.

The ISEQ has dropped 1.00%.

CRH which accounts for about 30% of the market cap, is up 0.55%. Elan has declined 3.40%;  AIB has slid 3.41% and BoI has slipped 4.35%.

European Benchmarks

Irish Share Prices

Euribor Rates

Insight on the state of the American banking industry, with Hugh McColl, former Bank of America chairman & CEO; Bill Isaac, Fifth Third Bank chairman; and CNBC's David Faber:

Oil

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil for August delivery is trading at $76.85, up 84 cents from Friday's close. In London, Brent crude for August delivery is trading at $76.20 a barrel.

Currencies

The euro is trading at $1.2966 and at £0.8517.

For live currency updates, check the right-hand column of the Finfacts home page. The dollar traded at a record low $1.6038 per euro on July 15, 2008.

"I continue to worry about a double-dip recession, a little bit more than a few months ago," Robert Shiller from Yale University told CNBC Monday. Chris Watling from Longview Economics and Chris Turner ING Financial Markets joined the discussion.