Equities

ON JAPAN

ON NORTH AMERICA

SOLVING THE DEBT CRISIS

Strong long-term growth trends underpin the investment case of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam. But the risks outweigh the benefits, writes Maria Merricks.

The European Central Bank has held rates at 1.5% despite mounting pressure on policymakers to resolve the sovereign debt crisis.

Cazenove's European fund manager Chris Rice has said he expects policymakers across Europe to stand firm and keep the eurozone intact despite growing expectations parts of it will break away.

Prime minister David Cameron has appealed for Britain to emulate the optimism seen in emerging economies such as China and India instead of being overwhelmed by the onslaught of negative data.

US markets dropped on the opening bell as investors braced for three sets of unemployment data including Friday's September non-farm payroll figures.

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress the US economy is "close to faltering" and more action may be needed.

Equity managers at F&C and Threadneedle are among those to have been adding to Tesco ahead of today's results which showed profits had risen 12.1%.