UBS has rescinded a staff warning against travel to China, just days after the Swiss bank issued it when one of its private banking advisers was asked by the Chinese authorities not to leave the country.

The rally in Chinese equities swung sharply into reverse on Tuesday as stocks across Asia-Pacific weakened and analysts mulled the lasting impact of a series of confidence-boosting measures by Beijing.

A California court has reduced by more than $200m the punitive damages awarded to a gardener over claims a popular weedkiller produced by Monsanto caused his cancer.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday officially opened the world's longest sea bridge, connecting semi-autonomous Hong Kong and Macau to mainland China.

The rally in Chinese equities showed signs of cooling in early trading on Tuesday, and analysts raised concerns over the resilience of a suite of measures by Beijing which drove the market’s biggest one-day gain since 2015 on Monday. 

China has confirmed two outbreaks of African swine fever in the central province of Hunan, following cases announced in the country’s south west on Monday and bringing the total number of outbreaks reported to more than 40.

Asia-Pacific stocks lost ground in early trading on Tuesday following a soft start to the week for equities in Europe and the US.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has agreed to sell its controlling stake in Indonesian life insurance business PT Commonwealth Life to FWD Group for A$426m ($301m), the latest move by Australia’s largest lender to exit non-core operations.

Italy’s populist government has defied eurozone budget enforcers, refusing to curtail its plans for a sharp increase in public spending and insisting that breaking the EU’s fiscal rules would not threaten the currency union’s stability.

HSBC is getting back into US consumer lending almost a decade after it was forced to write off $10.6bn for its last foray into that market.

Wall Street ended mixed on Monday as investors struck a cautious note, with the S&P 500 down for the fourth consecutive day as gains by tech stocks were offset by a drop in financials.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said he is “not satisfied” with Saudi Arabia’s response to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that he has “top intelligence people in Turkey”.

Richard Branson is stepping down as chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One as the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi casts doubt over the transport venture’s ambitions in Saudi Arabia.

Wells Fargo has taken another incremental step towards putting its mis-selling scandal behind it, reaching a $65m settlement with the New York attorney-general’s office.

Brazil’s equities and currency added to their three week rally on Monday as new polls showed far-right presidential candidate and market favourite Jair Bolsonaro set to cruise to victory in Sunday’s run-off votes.

Facebook was hit with another high profile departure on Monday, with Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe saying he was leaving the virtual reality headset maker that Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company acquired in 2014 for $3bn.

The chief executive of French oil major Total will attend this week’s Future Investment Summit in Saudi Arabia despite international outrage at the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

German chemical giant BASF Group said it will build a battery materials plant in Finland that could supply up to 300,000 electric cars a year, in the latest sign of Europe’s efforts to build a battery supply chain to compete with Asia.

US stocks clawed back some of their losses and were trading mixed by lunch time in New York on Monday amid a rebound in tech stocks.

Randgold Resources, the African-focused gold miner, has struck a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo over tax.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has said the UK’s transport system has “a cultural issue of people not facing up to realities early enough” which is behind recent failures and delays in major projects.

The EU has joined calls for the US to stay in a key nuclear arms control agreement and warned against the risk of a new global arms race.

The UK prime minister Theresa May has said the EU is “actively working” on her proposal for a temporary UK-EU customs territory for the “backstop” and that it should be “legally binding”.

Italy’s populist government defied eurozone budget enforcers on Monday, refusing to curtail its plans for a sharp increase in public spending and insisting that breaking the EU’s fiscal rules would not threaten the currency union’s stability.