A write down is on the cards at South32, the miner spun out of BHP Group, as the sale of its South African thermal coal assets enters the final stages.

South Africa’s Reserve Bank cut rates by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, as it slashed its forecast for growth this year in Africa’s most industrialised nation.

The global group of markets watchdogs has hit back at the Bank of England’s assertion that it was putting investment funds under review partly because earlier international attempts to tighten the rules were not detailed enough.

US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said there was “no change” to Washington’s stance on the dollar “as of now”, amid mounting speculation over whether the Trump administration will act to weaken the dollar.

UK MPs voted to back a bid to block the next prime minister from suspending parliament in order to enact a no-deal Brexit in October.

Nickel continued its march higher on Thursday, hitting a one-year high above $1,500 a tonne.

Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, has reaffirmed Washington’s determination to enforce US sanctions against Iran and to exclude those who disobey from the dollar system.

Strong earnings in wealth management helped Morgan Stanley to an expectation-beating set of second-quarter results, even as the bank recorded a steeper fall in fixed income revenue than its peers.

Blackstone beat expectations for distributable earnings and recorded an “unprecedented” surge in assets under management to $545bn in its final quarter as a publicly traded partnership.

The US chip giant Qualcomm was hit with a €242m fine on Thursday by the European Commission for abusing its dominant market position by using predatory pricing, concluding a nine-year case just as Brussels’ antitrust chief prepares to leave office.

Anglo American has flagged a strong performance from its Brazilian iron ore business ahead of next week’s half-year results.

The first unexplained wealth order targeted at suspected serious organised crime in the UK has been deployed against a businessman in the north of England, whose property empire is suspected of being funded by criminal associates involved in drug and firearms trafficking.

Volvo is looking to cut costs by SKr2bn (£171m) after the US-China trade war contributed to a drop in profits, as the Swedish carmaker revealed it had ditched hundreds of outside consultants working on research and IT projects.

Online fashion retailer Asos warned profits would be more than a third lower than expected this year due to a botched warehouse upgrade that limited the availability of stock to shoppers in the US and Europe. 

Earnings at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell again in the second quarter, but the pace of the drop eased after a strong pick up in sales in June. 

The Australian dollar climbed on Thursday after the country’s unemployment rate held steady in June and the economy added full-time jobs.

The Bank of Korea has unexpectedly cut interest rates for the first time in three years amid growing concerns about the country’s economic outlook as Japan’s export controls on high-tech materials to South Korea and China’s slowing economy pile pressure on Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Japanese exports continued to slump in June against a backdrop of slowing global growth and persistent trade tensions, while a larger than forecast fall in imports took the country’s trade balance back into surplus.

IBM’s revenues have fallen for a fourth straight quarter, pointing to continued pressure on its older products and services despite years of trying to reposition itself in growth markets like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain.

Ebay raised its full-year profit guidance as the ecommerce company reported better than expected second-quarter earnings, sending its shares higher in late trading on Wednesday.

Wall Street finished in the red on Wednesday following more subdued trading in global stock markets as investors digested a fresh batch of earnings and Donald Trump damped hopes of a swift resolution to trade talks with China.

The Pensions Regulator is investigating concerns that some employers are changing their business names to avoid their obligations to staff.

Investors in currency markets are growing increasingly fearful of a chaotic Brexit, piling into contracts which pay out if sterling fluctuates wildly in the run-up to the Halloween deadline.

A US federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera to life in prison.