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UK mortgage approvals rose unexpectedly in June, despite further increases in interest rates. Bank of England statistics showed net mortgage approvals for house purchases rose to 54,700 from 51,100 the previous month, while approvals for remortgaging rose to 39,100 from 34,100. Analysts had expected the housing market to slow in a month when stubbornly high

Western oil and gas majors are expected to face renewed scrutiny of their energy transition plans as the commodity crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine that supercharged profits for five consecutive quarters recedes. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor and Eni each reported drops in second-quarter earnings this week of about 50 per cent compared

“I wish,” a longstanding US Democrat and environmentalist said to me recently, “that we’d never politicised global warming.” Even as extreme heat is demonstrating that no country will be immune from climate change, the politics are becoming more treacherous.  Parts of the right are mobilising to slow down the path to net zero, as inflation

French luxury group Hermès has defied an industry-wide slowdown in the US, posting 22 per cent growth in sales across all markets in the first half of the year. Overall revenues soared to €6.7bn for the first half, from €5.5bn in the same period last year, the Paris-based company said on Friday. Operating profit surged

Intel’s partial rebound in the latest quarter from an inventory-driven drop in PC chip demand has given Wall Street a rare moment of financial outperformance to celebrate as the struggling US chipmaker seeks to stabilise its business and complete a four-year turnaround plan. The company’s shares rose more than 7 per cent in after-market trading

European stocks fell on Wednesday as investors responded to weakness in the luxury sector and awaited the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later in the day. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 0.4 per cent in early trade, reversing gains from the previous session, with France’s Cac 40 the biggest faller, down 1.1 per cent

Credit Suisse has been fined $388mn by US and British regulators for “significant failures in risk management and governance” related to the collapse of Archegos Capital, which caused a $5.5bn trading loss and helped bring about the demise of the Swiss lender. The US Federal Reserve imposed a $269mn penalty on the bank for “unsafe

Few business strategies inspire as much debate as share buybacks. Activist investors often demand them as a quick way of getting cash back to shareholders that would otherwise be wasted. Corporate executives argue that they are not only a tax-efficient alternative to dividends, but can also signal that the company is underpriced. They all hope

European stocks fell on Friday, as the tech sell-off on Wall Street sent jitters through the market while investors prepared for key central banks to announce their latest policy decisions next week.  Germany’s tech-heavy Dax index was the biggest faller in Europe, down 0.6 per cent. The region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.1 per cent, as

The unexpected drop in UK consumer price growth last month has led to cautious predictions that the country’s inflation crisis has reached a turning point. The news that annual inflation declined to 7.9 per cent in June from 8.7 per cent in May also made the UK look less like an outlier among advanced economies.

UK inflation eased more than expected to 7.9 per cent in June, providing some relief for the Bank of England ahead of its decision on interest rates next month. Annual inflation was down from 8.7 per cent in May, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. It was lower than the 8.2 per cent

Donald Trump said he was the target of a criminal probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, raising the possibility he could face fresh federal charges in the coming days. In a development he described as “horrifying”, Trump said he had received a letter from the US Department of Justice

European stocks followed Asia lower on Monday, as weak Chinese economic data reinforced investors’ concerns that the world’s second-largest economy was struggling to bounce back after three years of severe pandemic restrictions.  Europe’s regionwide Stoxx 600 lost 0.5 per cent at the opening bell, extending losses from the previous session, as the index was dragged

The writer is former special US envoy to Ukraine and former US ambassador to Nato It is sometimes difficult to appreciate the significance of major global changes while they are happening. Our analyses, instincts and actions are rooted in what we already know, not fully appreciating the new environment in which we find ourselves. We focus on

Retail investment platforms are being probed by regulators over the profits generated on customers’ cash, ahead of the introduction of a new consumer duty which will force firms to offer investors “fair value”. The Financial Conduct Authority on Thursday wrote to 39 investment platforms and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) providers asking for details on “client

Wall Street stocks and US government debt rallied on Wednesday while the dollar tumbled after inflation fell more than expected in June, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 stock index rose 1 per cent to its highest level since April 2022, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq

The chief executives behind Microsoft’s planned $75bn acquisition of Activision made a last-ditch attempt to save the deal in a courtroom on Wednesday in the face of US government objections that could result in its annulment as early as next week. The acquisition of the gaming company would almost certainly collapse if the judge sided

Good morning. Here’s a prediction I feel close to 100 per cent comfortable making: whichever party wins the next election will raise taxes by more than they claim during it. How Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer and, equally importantly, Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves navigate that is one of the big questions not only in

The US and Germany are under intense pressure from other allies to show greater support for Ukraine’s eventual membership of Nato, just days before the military alliance’s leaders meet in Lithuania. Washington and Berlin have backed a form of words for the summit’s concluding statement that does not fully endorse a “pathway” to Nato membership,

Elon Musk has sued the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to recover a portion of the $90mn fee paid by Twitter, the bulk of which was wired in the hours before the billionaire took over the social media company. Wachtell Lipton, an elite Wall Street firm, had helped Twitter’s then-board to close the