Schroders has promoted Rory Bateman to the role of head of European equities, replacing Gary Clarke who left for J.P. Morgan earlier this year.

Threadneedle is preparing to launch a UK Absolute Alpha fund for Chris Kinder and Mark Westwood, and plans to close its UK Crescendo hedge fund.

The cost to BP of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has hit $8bn (£5bn).

In the US, trading volumes fell ahead of key job market data to be released later today.

Peter Hargreaves, the outgoing chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, believes smaller investors will struggle to get advice post-RDR.

M&G has moved its £360m offshore Property fund from creation to cancellation pricing as it has suffered "small but persistent" redemptions.

Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock, says stocks are being pulled in two directions and are likely to keep to a narrow trading range until economic data improves.

The FTSE 100 moved slightly lower in afternoon trading as double-dip fears persisted on the back of negative housing market data.

Carlos de Leon has joined Allianz RCM as a portfolio manager ahead of the launch of its Brazil fund in October.

I confess I am a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder and Warren Buffett fan. I have been interested for some time in his philosophy and investment approach and read, earlier in my career, everything I could about him and his mentor, Benjamin Graham.