Invesco stockpicker Mark Barnett has been sacked as the manager of Edinburgh Investment Trust following poor performance, dealing an embarrassing blow to the former Neil Woodford protégé.

Euan Sutherland, the former head of Superdry and Co-op, is to join over-50s specialist Saga as its chief executive next month.

Stagecoach said its co-founder Brian Souter plans to step down as chairman, part of a management shake-up at the UK transport group.

Inditex, the international clothes retailer, reported net profits of €2.72bn for the first nine months of the year, up 12 per cent the same period a year before, boosting the company’s net cash to a record of €7.7bn.

Chevron has put shale gasfields up for sale in the prolific US Appalachian region as it plans to write down more than $10bn from these and other businesses, underlining how persistently low natural gas prices have stung big producers.

New York Life Insurance is in advanced talks to acquire a Cigna unit that sells nonmedical insurance coverage to employers for nearly $6bn, according to multiple people briefed on the negotiations.

US stocks closed slightly lower, marking a cautious response to media reports Washington and Beijing had signalled a Sunday deadline for the imposition of new round of tariffs on Chinese imports could be extended.

Barrick Gold, the world’s second largest gold producer, sold its 90 per cent stake in the Massawa project in Senegal to Teranga Gold for up to $430m, as it makes further headway on plans to sell over $1.5bn of assets.

Neil Woodford’s investment company has moved out of its office in an Oxfordshire business park as the company enters the final weeks of its wind-down.

Morgan Stanley has received a €20m fine from France’s markets regulator for allegedly manipulating the price of government bonds in 2015.

Britain’s accounting watchdog has fined Grant Thornton over the botched audit of a listed company, but was criticised for a lack of transparency after it declined to name the business whose accounts were affected.

Just Eat has rejected a fresh attempt by South Africa’s Naspers to disrupt the food delivery group’s planned tie-up with Takeaway.com, saying the sweetened offer “significantly undervalues” the company.

Wall Street began the week on the back foot, slipping for the first time in four days as investors grew antsy about the US-China trade war ahead of a fresh round of tariffs scheduled to take effect on Sunday.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has chosen a Swiss start-up company to head what it says will be the world’s first mission to remove a large piece of space junk from orbit.

Investors snapped up a further $25bn in short-term loans from the Federal Reserve on Monday, seeking to shore up financing over the end of the year.

Market attention next week will be focused on global monetary policy and the UK general election. Here’s what to watch in the coming days.

Wall Street rallied and US Treasuries sold off on Friday as traders cheered reports showing the economy added jobs in November at the quickest pace in 10 months and consumer sentiment improved.

The US has sanctioned four Iraqis it has accused of being involved in a recent brutal crackdown on protesters and corruption.

Asana, the business software company led by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, is expected to choose a direct listing when it goes public next year, adding to the succession of companies using the alternative to initial public offerings.

Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz will step down in 2020, and the central bank has begun a search for his successor.

Germany’s sprawling industrial sector is suffering its steepest downturn for a decade, underlining how the engine of the eurozone’s biggest economy is sputtering.

Smith & Wesson’s parent company American Outdoor Brands raised its full-year outlook after booking stronger quarterly sales than forecast, as US demand for firearms has picked up in the back half of 2019.

General Motors and South Korea’s LG Chem plan to invest a combined $2.3bn in a joint venture to build a new battery plant in the US, as the automaker prepares to ramp up production of electric vehicles.

United Airlines on Thursday said Oscar Munoz will step down as chief executive next year, hand the top job to the US carrier’s president, Scott Kirby and finally take a seat in the chairman’s lounge.