Markets

ON UK GROWTH

S&P Capital IQ is to explore strategic alternatives for its fund research business following an internal review.

Leading UK companies' profits dropped 34% over the year to end-March, according The Share Centre's Profit Watch UK research report.

Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland could miss its end-2013 deadline to sell 316 branches, a potential bidder has said.

US consumer inflation increased in July, hitting the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate and keeping it on track to taper bond purchases as early as next month.

ON UK INCOME

The FTSE has tumbled as much as 2% as US ten-year yields touch two-year highs in expectation of an imminent slowdown of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing programme.

ON UK GROWTH

Measures to increase confidence in the UK housing market could herald a new house price bubble, economists have warned.

George Soros has sold down all his gold holdings and has stocked up on unloved retailer JC Penney, nutrition supplement firm Herbalife, and tech giant Apple.