The UK's largest companies were climbing this morning on the back of Chinese stimulus hopes, after Shanghai Securities News said Chinese banks have "sped up" lending.

JP Morgan Chase has sold an estimated $25bn of profitable securities in an effort to boost earnings and recoup some of the $2bn it suffered in trading losses earlier this month.

David Cameron hosted a meeting with Mervyn King yesterday to prepare the Bank of England for the collapse of the euro and discuss contingency plans.

FMF

Investors have pulled almost $900m out of one of the world's largest gold ETFs in a single day, the biggest one-day outflow since August 2011.

Barclays has launched a platform which will allow wealth managers to trade stocks, ETFs and other assets themselves.

Wall Street opened lower today, joining a global equity slump triggered by mounting concerns over Greece's future in the eurozone.

J.P. Morgan has altered the investment process on its £533m Cautious Total Return fund, handing some of the stock selection decisions to JPM's specialist teams.

Philip Clarke, the chief executive of Tesco, has opted not to take his £372,000 annual bonus because of the group's poor performance in its core British market.

Markets across Europe have risen on hopes EU leaders may agree new measures to tackle the debt crisis at the NATO summit this week.