united kingdom, though its banking group has slashed 22,000 jobs since it was created by the takeover during the height of the financial crisis. lloyds is 21% owned by the government. the latest round of cuts has been described as staggering. the u.s. markets look set for a lower open. this is how the premarket futures stands. it s a mixed picture. the nasdaq showing gains at the moment in terms of the futures markets. on friday, investors will be turning their attention to bank of america first quarter results. keep an eye out for that in our second edition of world business today later on. pauline? nina, we re keeping our eye out on google futures. they re down about 5.5% in premarket trade. that s because the search giant missed expectations on thursday when it announced its first quarter earnings. but make no mistake, because google is still making tons of