Almost all the main bourses in Asia took a hit on Friday as investor sentiment looked shaky after North Korean ratcheted up its threats to geopolitical security.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC jumped to a five-month high on Friday after it agreed a $1.1bn deal with Google for the US technology giant to acquire 2,000 of its staff.

A North Korean official has suggested “highest level” actions mentioned to by Kim Jong Un in a statement on Wednesday could refer to the detonation of an H-bomb on the Pacific Ocean, according to South Korean media.

The dollar continued to retreat on Friday, paring back gains from a bump on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve confirmed it would begin shrinking its balance sheet.

Steve Bannon flew to Beijing last week for a secret meeting with the second most powerful Chinese Communist party official, less than a month after the former chief White House strategist declared that America was at “economic war with China”.

The war of words between the leaders of the US and North Korea is showing no signs of cooling off.

The era of quantitative erasing is retreating. Investors expect the European Central Bank will soon announce a tapering of its €60bn in monthly bond purchases, while the Federal Reserve will next month begin the task of running down its $4.5tn balance sheet.

Just a few months after naming a new chief executive, upscale jeweler Tiffany has announced a new chairman of its board, fashion industry veteran Roger Farah.

Texas Instruments is injecting more cash into share repurchases and raising its dividend.

The prospect of another US interest-rate increase in 2017 has knocked US equities indices off their record highs.

Facebook is planning to release the content of more than 3,000 ads purchased by Russian operatives after coming under sustained pressure from lawmakers who have criticised it for not being forthcoming about Moscow’s use of social media to influence US politics.

The White House has unveiled the details of its latest round of sanctions against North Korea amid the escalation of tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Brazilian miner Votorantim Metais Holding on Thursday filed for an initial public offering in New York and Toronto.

Swedish telecom Telia has agreed to a $965m global settlement to resolve allegations that it paid at least $330m in bribes to break into the Uzbekistan market.

The September meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers was duly accompanied by their projections for the path of interest rates, commonly known as the “dot plot”. Given the backdrop of modest economic growth, sluggish wage gains and a moribund rate of core inflation, investors still think the central bank is shooting too high.

Deutsche Börse is to cap executive pay for board members at €9.5m per person from this financial year onwards, Europe’s largest exchanges operator said late on Thursday,

Rio Tinto has announced plans to buy back an additional $2.5bn of its shares, returning all of the proceeds from the sale of its Australian coal business to investors.

Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress of cosmetics giant L’Oreal and world’s richest woman, has died at the age of 94, according to a statement from the company on Thursday.

The chart above shows collection rates on delinquent loans in three series of mortgage securitisations in the UK, compared with data on earnings growth.

Buy, baby, buy.

Anadarko Petroleum shares were leading the S&P 500 on Thursday morning after the energy group announced a massive $2.5bn share buyback programme through the end of 2018.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has struck a frustrated note on the progress of talks (again).

Kenya’s electoral commission has postponed the repeat presidential election by nine days to October 26, citing the need to “meet the standards set out by the supreme court” in its judgement that nullified last month’s ballot.

Mario Draghi has warned that there are still too many dud loans in the eurozone’s banking system.

Donald Trump said on Thursday the US will put more sanctions on North Korea.