Wall Street opened firmly higher on Wednesday thanks to a rebound in oil prices and after tame consumer price inflation data helped eased concerns that the Federal Reserve could speed up its pace of interest rate tightening.

Volkswagen said on Wednesday it is transforming two of its German production sites into electric vehicle plants, ensuring that by 2022 it will boast “the largest network for the production of electric vehicles in Europe”.

US consumer price inflation picked up following two months of back to back declines, but the rise is unlikely to change the view that the Federal Reserve will push ahead with its gradual pace of interest rate tightening.

Macy’s has become the second big US retailer this week to lift its sales and profit outlook for the year in the latest sign the robust economy is giving a much-needed boost to the hard-pressed sector.

Theresa May has signalled a government climbdown over fixed-odds betting terminals, telling the House of Commons she had listened to colleagues’ concerns over the issue — which prompted the resignation of the sports minister two weeks ago.

Tencent, the Chinese online gaming and messaging group, posted a 31 per cent rise in profit in the third quarter after growth in online advertising, mobile payments and cloud services offset the impact of Beijing’s continuing ban on new internet games.

Jeremy Corbyn attacked the government’s “failure” to bring back an acceptable deal from Brussels as his opposition Labour party gears up to vote against the agreement in the coming weeks.

Deutsche Bank has stepped up its medium term cost-cutting plans, chief financial officer James von Moltke said on Wednesday, adding that the previous 2021 target of bringing expenses down to €21bn was not ambitious enough.

Italy’s government debt sold off sharply on Wednesday with the benchmark 10-year yield rising to a three-week high after the country’s government told the European Commission that it would forge ahead with its fiscally aggressive budget.

Minicab company Addison Lee has lost its appeal against a workers’ rights ruling, the latest in a series of significant “gig economy” cases.

And we’re back.

Growth momentum in Europe is fading, with a broad measure of eurozone industrial production flagging in September.

The Financial Times headquarters is to be sold to M&G Real Estate for £115m, a price 28 per cent above the asking price set when Pearson, the former owner of the newspaper, put the building up for sale.

The German financial sector is ill prepared to weather a recession, as the long era of economic growth may have inflated asset prices and lured lenders into underestimating future credit risks, Bundesbank has warned in its Financial Stability Review.

UK inflation unexpectedly remained steady in October as slowdowns in food, clothing and transport price increases were offset by rises in utility bills and the cost of fuel.

The International Energy Agency said on Wednesday Opec is pumping far more crude oil than the market needs for next year, a month after calling on producers to ramp up output to help tame prices that have since collapsed.

Jerry Buhlmann is stepping down as chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network, the world’s fifth largest advertising company, after nine years in charge.

British Land half-year resultsBritish Land may pay more attention to today’s draft Brexit agreement than the Little Englanders in Theresa May’s cabinet. As owner of the City of London’s Broadgate office development and the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield, the property group arguably has more invested than any of them in the future of financial services — and of consumers’ finances.

UK engineering conglomerate Smiths Group said on Wednesday it planned to separate out its medical devices division to allow it to focus on its core industrial technology businesses.

Energy provider SSE has admitted there is some doubt as to whether a planned merger of its retail arm with rival Npower will now go ahead after the companies decided to return to the negotiating table last week over the terms of the deal.

The rented housing group Grainger is to buy out the Dutch pension fund APG from a joint venture in a £396m expansion of its property portfolio.

Samsung BioLogics, the biopharmaceutical unit of Samsung Group, violated accounting rules in 2015 by inflating the value of an affiliate group, South Korea’s financial watchdog said on Wednesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Alison Rose as deputy head of the ringfenced bank that accounts for the vast majority of its business, signalling her position as the leading internal candidate to succeed group chief executive Ross McEwan.

The landmark deal between German utilities Eon and RWE remains on track for completion next year, RWE said on Tuesday, as both groups reported quarterly results that were broadly in line with market expectations and reaffirmed their full year targets.