European stock markets and US futures slipped on Thursday, with the health of the economy and the path of US monetary policy in focus.

Shares in NMC Health shot up as much as 42 per cent on Thursday morning after a media report that two groups, including one backed by China’s Fosun, had made competing offers to buy a significant stake in the private healthcare group.

Royal Dutch Shell has entered the Australian electricity market with a $418m deal for ERM Power, an energy supplier for businesses.

Environment groups have refreshed calls for a ban on fracking after shale gas company Cuadrilla was forced to temporarily down tools at its site in Lancashire following the biggest earthquake to date at the project.

Australian miner South32 said it was in “exclusive talks” to sell its South African coal mines to local miner Seriti Resources.

France’s private sector remained resilient to a eurozone slowdown in August, even as Germany’s large factory sector continued stuttering, a survey of executives showed.

UK gambling group Rank said it was starting to see results from a turnround programme as it battles to offset lower spending by high-rolling customers at its Grosvenor Casinos and declining footfall at its Mecca bingo halls.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta said it was in a strong position to weather the uncertainties of the US-China trade war as it reported a 44 per cent increase in earnings for the first half of the year.

Premier Oil has launched a formal process to sell its stake in an undeveloped project off the coast of Mexico and to also reduce its holding in a long-awaited scheme in waters north of the Falkland Islands as it continues to tackle its $2bn debt pile.

Japan’s manufacturing sector shrank for a fourth consecutive month in August while services activity picked up, according to early results from a private survey.

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of artificial intelligence group DeepMind, is currently on extended leave from the company, amid speculation that parent company Google had taken over the bulk of his responsibilities.

Nordstrom, the upscale US department store chain, cheered investors with a stronger than expected quarterly profit, despite a 5 per cent decline in sales, adding to fresh optimism over the health of the retail industry.

US stocks held on to their gains following the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July monetary policy meeting, as fresh optimism over consumer spending countered recent worries over economic growth.

French president Emmanuel Macron has decided to abandon the tradition of a joint final communiqué at the G7 summit at the weekend, in an attempt to smooth over differences between the big democracies taking part and to avoid a repeat of last year’s row between US president Donald Trump and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Gilead Sciences, the maker of HIV drug Truvada, is moving to challenge patents held by the US government on the preventive use of the drug, which is known as PrEP, amid criticism it used publicly-funded research to bring the drug to market at too steep a price.

Iron ore prices have fallen 30 per cent this month, and on Wednesday tumbled to their lowest levels since March, after miner BHP warned that benchmark prices were likely to be lower over the next year.

Sales of previously owned homes in the US rose for only the third time this year, data on Wednesday showed, but July’s increase suggested lower mortgage rates helped support the housing market.

Norway’s $1tn oil fund held a record amount of equities at the end of June, raising fears that the world’s largest sovereign wealth investor could have loaded up on shares again at the top of the cycle.

A German lender has sold €1bn in mortgage-backed bonds with the most deeply-negative yield on record, highlighting the lengths buyers such as banks and asset managers need to go in order to stash their cash in a world of sky-high bond prices.

Germany has sold 30-year debt at a negative yield for the first time, although demand at Wednesday’s auction was weak as some investors balked at the prospect of paying to tie up their cash for three decades.

The UK’s public finances were weaker than expected in July, reflecting the slowing economy amid Brexit uncertainty and increased government spending on preparations to leave the EU.

Global Fashion Group, the emerging markets-focused online fashion retailer, unveiled a sharp rise in sales and new customers on Wednesday, in the first set of results since its disappointing stock market listing last month.

Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft has reported a fall in second-quarter net profit as a shutdown of the country’s most important export pipeline to Europe hurt earnings.

AstraZeneca has disclosed a setback for one of its key cancer treatments, saying a trial involving immunotherapy drug Imfinzi was no more effective than regular chemotherapy at treating advanced lung cancer.