Economics

The Nikkei tumbled 3% on Friday to touch its lowest level for almost three weeks as the yen strengthened against the dollar.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned if the US Federal Reserve begins tapering monetary stimulus, the weakest eurozone countries could be pushed into a "debt-deflation spiral".

UK GDP rose by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to initial estimates - in line with analysts' expectations and double the 0.3% figure seen in Q1.

China has unveiled new measures to boost its struggling economy in a fresh sign the ruling party is concerned about a slowdown.

The FTSE 100 has ended three straight days of losses to move 0.9% higher, returning to levels last seen at the end of May.

Disappointing Chinese manufacturing data has sent Asian equities into reverse and raised further questions over extent of the country's economic slowdown.

US equities can benefit from the end of QE and post an annualised return of 10% by end-2014, according to AXA IM head of research Eric Chaney.

Global markets have had a volatile relationship with the central banks this summer, as the US Federal Reserve began hinting at tapering its asset purchasing programme.

Sustainable and well regulated growth in financial services could generate an additional 265,000 jobs and boost GDP by between 2% and 3% by 2020, a report from PwC has found.

M&G has won its fight to add four non-executive directors to the board of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) after the small-cap oil group backed down at the last minute.