Wall Street gave up the ghost on Friday as concerns about the global growth outlook triggered a fall of about 2 per cent across the broader market and saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average join other US benchmarks in correction territory.

A boardroom battle at Telecom Italia has escalated after the board of Italy’s former telco monopoly said it has received a request from shareholder Vivendi to call an extraordinary shareholders meeting to revoke five board members appointed by rival shareholder US hedge fund Elliott Advisors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average joined Wall Street’s other main gauges in correction territory as declines topped 2 per cent in afternoon trade on Friday.

London’s Acacia Mining said it had “been in contact” with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office in the wake of corruption allegations against its staff in Tanzania.

Facebook has been hit with the broadest data protection investigation yet in Europe after the social media group revealed another leak of private photos belonging to millions of people. 

Allied Irish Banks will appoint Colin Hunt as its new chief executive, picking an internal candidate to lead Ireland’s largest lender after the surprise departure of Bernard Byrne.

J Sainsbury and Asda have won their judicial review against the Competition and Markets Authority and will now be allowed additional time to submit documentation in support of their proposed combination. However, they did not succeed in extending the period into early January as they had sought. 

Industrialist Sanjeev Gupta has completed the purchase of Europe’s biggest aluminium smelter from Rio Tinto for $500m, as he looks to build a manufacturing business in northern France supplying the automotive industry.

Johnson & Johnson is on track for its biggest one-day drop in 16 years, with shares dropping more than 10 per cent on Friday after a media report said the healthcare company knew for decades about the presence of asbestos in its baby powder.

A handful of European insurance companies would face serious trouble if interest rates suddenly rose or if they stayed low for a long time, the EU’s latest stress tests have found.

Brazilian prosecutors have charged two former executives of Trafigura with corruption as part of a wider investigation into international commodities traders.

Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund is set to sell a near 40 per cent stake in its North Sea energy business to JPMorgan’s asset management arm, just four months after it paid £1.3bn for the collection of major pipelines and terminals.

With just over three months to go until the UK is due to leave the European Union, smaller financial institutions and e-money firms are not doing enough to prepare for a cliff-edge Brexit, Europe’s watchdog of watchdogs has warned.

Spanish prosecutors have filed tax fraud charges against Colombian music star Shakira, claiming that she avoided paying €14.5m in taxes between 2012 and 2014 by using shell companies to hide income she received while a Spanish resident.

The London Stock Exchange Group has named Don Robert as its new chairman to replace Donald Brydon, who is stepping down after a dispute with shareholders over its former chief executive.

Wall Street was more than 1 per cent lower during morning trade on Friday, taking its cue from global markets that had been unnerved by concerns about the outlook for Chinese economic growth.

BNP’s Polish arm will cut its staff by up to 2200 over the next two years, in an effort to cut costs following its purchase of Raiffeisen Bank International’s Polish business.

Dominic Chappell, the former bankrupt who bought BHS for £1 from retail tycoon Philip Green and received £2.6m from the company before it collapsed, lambasted the billionaire on Friday as he was fined £50,000 for failing to provide information to the pensions regulator.

Cold weather powered demand for utilities last month and helped US industrial production rise by the most in three months, even as manufacturing stalled, data on Friday showed.

A resolution looked in sight on Friday following six weeks of political chaos in Sri Lanka, after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to give up on a controversial attempt to return to government as prime minister.

Theresa May said she had a “robust discussion” with Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday after the president of the European Commission described Britain’s Brexit position as “nebulous”.

A core measure of US retail sales surged by the most in a year in November as falling gasoline prices emboldened American consumers to spend freely elsewhere.

Europe’s two major currencies came under pressure on Friday, with the pound weakening as Theresa May’s attempt to rescue her Brexit deal faced opposition in Brussels and the euro dropping after grim economic data from France in the wake of recent widespread protests.

Wall Street is poised to join European and Asian bourses lower on Friday after a batch of weaker-than-expected economic data from China set off fresh concerns about the growth outlook for the world’s second-largest economy.