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Jay Powell signalled his support for a quicker withdrawal of the Federal Reserve’s massive asset purchase programme, in comments that raised the spectre of earlier interest rate rises next year and exacerbated a stock market sell-off. Powell’s testimony at a congressional hearing roiled markets, which were already under pressure after the chief executive of Moderna

The UK has reported its first cases of the new Omicron coronavirus mutation as the variant continues to spread in Europe and scientists race to assess the new level of risk. The UK health department said one case had been identified in Chelmsford and a second in Nottingham. They were linked and connected to travel

Global stocks and oil prices tumbled on Friday as investors dashed for shelter in safe haven assets after a new coronavirus variant shook market sentiment. A broad sell-off in European shares followed similar moves in Asian markets. Europe’s Stoxx 600 fell 3.1 per cent in early trade, with France’s CAC 40 index and Germany’s Dax

Germany’s Social Democrats, Greens and liberals have reached a deal on forming a new government, paving the way for finance minister Olaf Scholz to succeed Angela Merkel as leader of Europe’s largest economy. The three parties will present their coalition agreement on Wednesday afternoon, the fruit of almost two months of intense negotiations following national

President Joe Biden has announced the release of oil from the US’s strategic stockpile in a bid to drive down petrol prices and snuff out a crude market rally that the White House has said poses a threat to the global economic recovery. The White House said on Tuesday the president was authorising the release

Joe Biden has nominated Jay Powell to serve a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve, opting for continuity at a delicate moment for the US economy as it grapples with persistently high inflation and a patchy labour market recovery. Lael Brainard, considered Powell’s fiercest competitor for the top job, was tapped for the

Telecom Italia is to hold an emergency board meeting on Sunday to evaluate a takeover offer from US private equity group KKR, a deal that would be one of the largest telecoms buyouts of all time. KKR already holds a 37.5 per cent stake in Telecom Italia’s “last mile” network but has moved to make

UBS has proposed former Morgan Stanley president Colm Kelleher as its next chair, succeeding Axel Weber when he steps down next year after a decade overseeing the Swiss lender. The appointment of Kelleher, a 64-year-old Irishman who spent 30 years at the Wall Street bank, was announced on Saturday morning. UBS conducted a wide external

The US House of Representatives passed the $1.75tn Build Back Better bill on Friday morning, sending Joe Biden’s ambitious social spending package to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. The final vote was 220-213, with all but one Democrat voting in favour and every Republican opposing it. The Democrat-controlled House had aimed to

Turkey slashed interest rates on Thursday, sending the lira tumbling to a new record low and amplifying concerns President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fixation on low borrowing costs will worsen already acute inflation. The central bank cut its one-week repo rate by 1 percentage point to 15 per cent, marking the third straight reduction in interest

Three of Barclays’ top-20 shareholders have raised concerns over the terms of Jes Staley’s exit ahead of meetings between the bank and investors next week. Some investors have privately criticised the £2.4m in pay awarded to the departing chief executive, who resigned this month following a probe into his past ties to convicted sex offender

Germany’s energy regulator said it had “temporarily suspended” certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, dealing a setback to the Kremlin-backed gas project and sparking a rise in UK and continental European gas prices. The regulator said it could not yet approve the project, led by Russia’s Gazprom, because its owners had not yet properly

Royal Dutch Shell plans to ditch its dual share structure and move its tax residence from the Netherlands to the UK, in moves the oil group says will strengthen its competitiveness. The overhaul of the Anglo-Dutch group’s structure comes less than a month after the Wall Street activist investor Third Point announced a stake in

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow succeeded in getting 197 countries to agree new rules on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but last-minute objections from India and China stymied a commitment to end coal use and fossil fuel subsidies. Conference president Alok Sharma fought back tears in the final minutes as he apologised to other ministers

Jes Staley exchanged 1,200 emails with Jeffrey Epstein over a four-year period with content that included unexplained terms such as “snow white”, according to people familiar with the correspondence between the former Barclays chief executive and the convicted sex offender. Staley resigned from Barclays last week after seeing preliminary conclusions of an investigation by UK

Johnson & Johnson is to spin off its consumer products division, best known for Band-Aid plasters and baby shampoo, as the world’s largest healthcare company seeks to focus on pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The division, which generated $14bn in sales last year, will be split off in 18 to 24 months, most likely via a

General Electric has paid more than $7bn in investment banking fees since 2000, as Wall Street lenders reaped rewards from a frenzied period of dealmaking that culminated in a sinking share price and the eventual break-up of the best-known US conglomerate. GE spent $2.3bn on mergers and acquisition advice alone, according to figures from Refinitiv,

US consumer prices are expected to have surged in October at their fastest pace in three decades, as bottlenecks and other supply-chain disruptions intensify and inflationary pressures broaden. Consensus forecasts compiled by Bloomberg indicate that the consumer price index to be published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday rose 5.9 per cent in

US industrial group General Electric is to split itself into three public companies from 2023, a big step in chief executive Larry Culp’s plan to streamline the sprawling conglomerate. The companies will focus on healthcare, energy and aviation. GE Healthcare will be spun off in 2023, with GE retaining a 19.9 per cent stake in

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has promised a ¥1tn ($8.8bn) share buyback programme over the next 12 months, yielding to investor pressure after the company’s Vision Fund unit disclosed a record quarterly loss of ¥825.1bn. Market expectations of a new round of share repurchases had been rising with some of the company’s largest shareholders, including activist