The US economy grew by 2% in the third quarter of 2012, beating forecasts despite ongoing fears the US elections and the impending fiscal cliff are putting businesses off from spending heavily.

Apple, the world's largest company, revealed profits in the fourth quarter missed analysts' estimates, prompting a share price drop of 1.5% in after-hours trading.

Spanish banking giant Santander has seen its profits tumble by more than 90% in the third quarter after bad property loans in Spain battered its books.

John Shepherd, head of UK retail discretionary sales at UBS Global Asset Management, has resigned from the firm.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of revealing that tomorrow's GDP figure will meet positive expectations, in an apparent slip-up that could have breached the embargo on the official data.

Societe Generale's former trader Jerome Kerviel has had his appeal quashed by a French court which also said he is liable for the €4.9bn he lost the bank.

Markets across the US and Asia closed sharply lower overnight as investors switched to risk-off mode en masse.

Facebook, the social networking giant, saw its shares jump 14% after the US market closed yesterday following an update from the group which showed a major revenue boost from mobile ads.

Investors across Europe and the US are in flight-mode this afternoon, with US markets opening sharply lower as the weak corporate earnings season continues to plague sentiment.

Fidelity's new hire Jeremy Podger has backed Google as one of several changes to the Global Special Situations fund, in spite of the sell-off following the tech giant's bungled Q3 earnings release.