So with that in mind, I'm not going to say "the time has come ....." because as we all know, a large dose of media hype over the weekend and the world will see this as a 'buying opportunity'!

So let's just see if this correction takes hold - which it should - and in the meantime, I'll focus on two other trains of thought this week.  Switzerland and stress tests for Insurers.

One could say, "Oh how the mighty have fallen".

Swiss banks used to have the best reputation in the world as being confidential, tax-free and above everything, pretty secure (bit like the country really).

While the spotlight has been on the aggressive drive by the US government to flush tax dodgers out of Switzerland, bankers in Switzerland are instead grappling with the loss of a much richer clientele: Europeans.

Americans have made up no more than 5% of Switzerland's $1.8 trillion offshore-banking business. But European clients are steadily coming clean, spooked by threats of a crackdown by their own governments.

Nonresident, or offshore, clients make up about a third of Switzerland's private-banking business, with just more than half of those coming from other European countries. According to KPMG, as much as 80% of the Europeans' money in Switzerland is undeclared. In all, KPMG reckons that tax evasion could represent up to 25% of Switzerland's total private-banking market.

This weekend, Swiss banking giant UBS AG will hand over the names of 500 suspected American tax dodgers to the Internal Revenue Service, the first of 4,450 names it will turn over as part of an August agreement between the US and Swiss governments. That accord marked a historic breach of Switzerland's cherished bank secrecy, and prodded many Swiss banks to refuse to take American clients for fear of falling foul of US laws.

Now, in the wake of the American crackdown, and Switzerland's cooperation, an exodus of European money is under way. According to consulting group McKinsey & Co., Western European money makes up 51% of legacy assets in Switzerland, but only about a third of new money.

To be sure, the demise of the tax-dodging business is akin to a melting ice cube, and the speed at which it dissolves will depend on how aggressive European governments -- whose rhetoric in clamping down on tax deadbeats has exceeded real action -- will be. No other government has been as aggressive as the US has in putting up demands that the Swiss hand over names of suspected tax dodgers.

But there are signs of pressure. This past week, Italian tax authorities raided local offices of Swiss banks, in what Swiss bankers regard as an attempt to scare tax dodgers. And new treaties Switzerland has signed with France and the UK make it easier for those countries to pursue information on suspected tax dodgers.

The tax crackdown isn't the only factor driving European money away. Many European baby boomers are also anxious to bring money home to recapitalize sagging businesses or pass the money on to their children.

For Swiss banks, a fat business is slipping away. Citizens in Italy, Germany and France -- the big three tax-dodging nations -- stashed their money in Switzerland because of political unrest at home, high inflation and sky-high tax rates. They weren't always after high returns, and they complained little about performance and rarely visited their bankers, who typically had them sign discretionary mandates allowing the bank to act on their behalf. Higher fees on discretionary mandates mean such clients are twice as profitable as those who directly manage their accounts. Some bankers privately admit that the fees on undeclared money can be several times those on declared money.

Since around 2000, the bigger Swiss banks such as Credit Suisse Group, UBS, Julius Baer Group AG and Pictet & Cie have tried to diversify away from tax dodgers by opening branches in Italy, Germany and France and building big onshore businesses with these clients. They are also targeting new millionaires in Russia, the Middle East and Asia. With taxes low at home, investors in these countries are instead fleeing political instability. Indeed, Singapore, also courting these emerging-market millionaires, is now Switzerland's main offshore rival.

But the switch isn't painless. A recent presentation by Credit Suisse gave a rare peek into just how rich the undeclared business was. The bank expanded aggressively abroad over the past decade; between 2006 and the first half of this year, just 4% of its net new money came from Western European clients bringing their money into Switzerland; 59% flowed into its booking centers outside the country.

"Bank secrecy in itself cannot be a value proposition," said Credit Suisse at a presentation recently. "It is important to clients, but the tax angle of it cannot be the driver."

Credit Suisse's operating profit margin on its business managing noncompliant money in Switzerland is 75% -- double the margin on its onshore business. The tax-avoidance business could account for 12% to 15% of the operating profit of Credit Suisse's private bank. As that business melts away, Credit Suisse could have trouble hitting its target of 40% operating margin on the private bank, he says.

The low valuations for a raft of recent private-banking acquisitions also show the poor prospects for undeclared money. In October, Julius Baer paid just 2.3% of managed assets for the Swiss portfolio of ING Groep NV -- far off the 5% paid just a few years ago -- in part because the book contains a large chunk of European clients.

According to analysts, the biggest losers will be the smaller banks, which don't have the resources to bulk up in the areas tax-compliant clients need. They will also struggle to open overseas offices to lure the new rich of the emerging markets.

More on the Swiss Banking problems in Italy.

Italy on Thursday urged Switzerland not to retaliate over their deepening tax and banking dispute after Italian finance police raided local branches of Swiss banks and stood accused of spying on Italians holding secret accounts across the border.

"Counter-measures certainly do not help," said Franco Frattini, Italian foreign minister, while also trying to calm matters by assuring Switzerland that it was not being discriminated against and that their relations remained "excellent".

Billions in undeclared Euros - estimates range from €125bn ($186bn, £112bn) upwards - held by Italians in Swiss banks are the focus of attempts by Italy's cash-strapped centre-right government to repatriate funds under a generous tax amnesty passed by parliament this month.

Unlike deposits held in most other western nations where Italians can, under the amnesty, pay a 5% penalty and keep their funds abroad, monies held in Switzerland and several smaller banking havens must be repatriated to Italy.

Switzerland has responded angrily at being singled out, noting that it had recently been removed from an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development "grey list" of tax havens.

Giulio Tremonti, Italian finance minister and the architect of the third tax amnesty by a Berlusconi government, on Thursday expressed satisfaction with the flows of capital returning to Italy's economy and banks. He gave no figures.

Switzerland on Wednesday summoned Giuseppe Deodato, Italy's ambassador, to express its "surprise" over unannounced checks made by Italy's finance ministry police on 76 branches of mainly Swiss banks in 25 Italian cities on Tuesday. Pascal Couchepin, Swiss interior minister, was quoted in Italian newspapers as describing the checks as "discriminatory" and "pillaging".

Italian finance police - dubbed 007s - have installed video cameras at the main Chiasso border crossing to Switzerland, to record number plates of passing vehicles. Swiss newspapers have also accused the Italian authorities of spying on Italians on trains inside Switzerland. Such surveillance and the spot checks on the Swiss bank branches are widely seen as aimed at intimidating Italians into withdrawing their funds.

Feelings are running high in Lugano, the banking centre of Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region, especially after Mr Tremonti said earlier this month he wanted to "dry out" the main source of Italian money held abroad.

"The way Italy is trying to enforce the amnesty by attacking Switzerland has gone beyond Lugano and Ticino and has turned into a Swiss national issue. Everyone now realises the problem lies in relations with Italy," Alfredo Gysi, chief executive of BSI, Ticino's biggest bank, told the Financial Times.

He said he understood the approach of dialogue taken by Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss finance minister and president, but added: "No one should act impulsively but the right approach now is to a willingness to take a tough position."

On to my second topic Friday; European Insurers and impending stress tests.

Allianz, Aviva and Axa are among the European Union's 30 largest insurers to go through stress tests in December to help policymakers judge their resilience to economic shocks and improve supervision.

The insurers will face three scenarios including an adverse shock that mirrors the performance of markets over the 12 months from September 2008, the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (Ceiops), said on Friday.

It will be the first time that stress tests have been conducted across the European insurance industry and follows a series of stress tests on the 22 largest banks, the latest of which gave banking a clean bill of capital health last month.

Ceiops, which could become a powerful pan-European supervisor itself under draft legislation published last month, postponed making a decision on a key element of its advice on new capital rules for insurers. These are expected to hit UK annuity writers especially hard.

The body's member regulators have been discussing the new Solvency II capital rules over the past two days. It issues its first wave of advice to Brussels in about 10 days time. It will reduce some of what the insurance industry called the "excessive conservatism" contained in its consultation papers this summer, according to one person involved in the talks.

However, it will ask for further work to be done on the issue of whether insurers can apply a "liquidity premium", which is key to reducing the cost of the new rules for UK annuity business. The Association of British Insurers said this summer that the UK industry could be forced to raise about £50bn in new capital because of the rules.

Ceiops said the stress tests it endorsed on Friday would include the "adverse scenario" and two others. One would reflect a more severe and prolonged recession and another would see inflation picking up rapidly leading to a steep rise in interest rates.

It said the tests, which will use industry balance sheet data from June this year as a starting point, would focus on the impact on markets and defaults among various kinds of borrowers. It would give no further details.

For the banks' stress tests, run by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, the adverse scenario assumed a fall in EU gross domestic product of 5.2% in 2009 and 2.7% in 2010.

The CEA, the European insurance association, said the industry "recognised the purpose of the stress tests, understands the political will behind them and obviously will comply".

It added that December was not ideal timing as insurers would be engaged in calculating and preparing their end of year numbers.

The tests were expected to happen next year, with a study of new solvency rules' impact, but were brought forward under pressure from politicians.

On to the numbers on the boards this week: