Economics

Japan's Nikkei 225 index has closed down 7.3% as comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke over a potential scaling back of quantitative easing spooked investors worldwide.

UK CPI inflation has fallen to 2.4% in April, a larger-than-expected drop from the 2.8% figure recorded in March.

Vodafone has reported a record fall in organic service revenue in the first three months of 2013 but has hiked its full-year dividend by 7%.

ECONOMICS

Outgoing Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has urged successor Mark Carney not to spell out how long interest rates will remain low when he takes charge.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment has cut a number of jobs across its IFA sales team, Investment Week can reveal.

The government is set to push ahead with plans to privatise Royal Mail this year in a £3bn float, as profits at the group continue to impress.

Yahoo, one of the world's most popular search engines, is said to have approved a $1.1bn deal to buy blogging service Tumblr, according to reports.

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia could be used to indicate future movements in the stock market, a new study has suggested.

Shares in online grocer Ocado have risen 30% this morning on news of a deal to provide fellow retailer Morrisons with an online delivery service.