Markets

Legal & General Investment Management said today its profits had risen to £119m in the first half of 2012, after assets under management climbed 3% to £381bn.

The UK's highly-prized AAA-credit rating should not be seen as the 'be all and end all' of government policy, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has said.

Shares in UK-listed banking giant Standard Chartered have dived in early trading, down 16%, amid allegations the bank assisted in a $250bn money laundering scheme.

Spanish stocks rallied sharply this afternoon after a technical glitch shut down the country's blue chip index for almost five hours.

Argonaut founding partner Barry Norris finds a glimmer of hope for the eurozone crisis in the latest comments by ECB President Mario Draghi.

July US employment figures have come in well ahead of economists' estimates, helping stave off fears of a new US recession, despite a small rise in the unemployment rate to 8.3%.

THE BIG QUESTION

The FTSE 100 has added 1.4% in early trading as investors consign yesterday's ECB disappointment to the past and await today's US jobs data.

State-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said today it had made a loss of £1.5bn in the first half of this year, after taking a near £3bn writedown on the value of its own debt.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has called on the government to loosen its debt reduction plans as growth forecasts are slashed for the UK.