Global Watch

* Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and chief executive of Enron, as the US Congress prepared to extend its investigation of the bankrupt trading company.

* Gross liabilities of the energy trading arm of Enron's London-based European operations, excluding inter-company debts, are likely to be well in excess of $1 bn, according to initial estimates understood to have been made by the administrator, PwC.

* The outlook for the global steel industry this year remains "highly adverse" in spite of hopes of a gradual upturn in prices, according to World Steel Dynamics, a leading US steel consultancy.

* The Eurozone economy will return to growth in the first quarter of this year after having probably shrunk in the last three months of 2001, the European Commission said. It estimates GDP was likely to grow at a quarter-on-quarter rate of 0.1-0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2002.

* GoodYear Tyre and Rubber, the world's biggest tyre manufacturer, joined a long line of fallen angels after its credit ratings were slashed to junk by Standard and Poor's, which cited concerns the highly-leveraged company's long-term profit potential.

* Restructuring charges and lower sales forced Sun Microsystems to report a $431 mn net loss in its second fiscal quarter, but the network computer maker said it was seeing signs of progress from the first quarter.