The UK government’s borrowing rose sharply in June, in large part due to movements in the flawed retail prices index that pushed up the cost of interest payments on outstanding debt.

Credit Suisse has lost its legal battle with the UK tax authorities to claw back £239m which it paid as a fee on banker bonuses after the financial crisis.

Taiwan could give refuge to Hong Kong protesters who have fled the Chinese administrative region, the Taiwanese government said on Friday.

PepsiCo is to acquire South Africa’s Pioneer Foods for $1.7bn, expanding the US fizzy drinks and snacks company’s footprint in the African market as it diversifies under a new chief executive.

ITV and the BBC said on Friday they reached an agreement to launch their joint streaming service in the UK, as Britain’s biggest broadcasters join forces to fend off mounting competition from online rivals like Netflix.

Oil jumped on growing geopolitical fears after a US warship shot down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz, while global stock markets rallied on rising expectations of monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve later this month. 

Barrick Gold has bowed to pressure from minority shareholders and increased its buyout offer for Acacia Mining.

Sterling edged higher in morning trading in Asia after rallying overnight as MPs backed a parliamentary manoeuvre designed to stop a no-deal Brexit, and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier signalled openness to alternative arrangements at the Irish border. 

Shares in CrowdStrike, the cyber security company that uncovered Russian hackers inside the servers of the US Democratic National Committee, jumped 11 per cent on Thursday after the group topped analyst estimates in its maiden results as a public company.

Gannett, publisher of USA Today, is in advanced talks to combine with GateHouse Media in a deal that would merge the two largest owners of newspapers in the US by circulation, said two people briefed about the matter.

Wall Street ended a two-day losing streak, while Treasuries also rallied, as investors refocused on a potential US rate cut following fresh commentary from Federal Reserve officials.

BMW’s supervisory board named Oliver Zipse as the next chief executive of the German carmaker.

US President Donald Trump said he may review a Department of Defense cloud computing contract for which Amazon is a finalist, casting new uncertainty over a deal that could be worth up to $10bn for the winner.

Munich Re, the reinsurer, has said its second-quarter results will be well ahead of last year because of a lack of major claims.

Talks to sell a stake in energy data provider Argus Media have collapsed, several people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The ins and outs of the 1MDB money laundering and bribery scandal will be played out in a Brooklyn courtroom from May 11 next year if former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng fails to reach a plea agreement with US prosecutors before then.

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.

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.

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.