Wall Street’s S&P 500 slipped back on Thursday as investors absorbed more earnings news and measured indications that global trade disputes may not be resolved any time soon.

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 $14,700 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.

Honeywell on Thursday reported better than expected second-quarter profits driven by strength in its aerospace business and delivered a slightly rosier full-year outlook.

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.

Reach, the owner of British newspapers including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, is in talks to buy some of JPI Media’s portfolio.

Britons carrying out home improvements and bagging charity shop deals helped support the UK retail sector in June, with sales confounding gloomy expectations to provide a boost to gross domestic product growth in the second quarter.

The global trade war contributed to a nearly two-fifths fall in profits at Volvo during the first half of the year, leading the Swedish automaker to seek cost savings of SKr2bn (£172m) and slash hundreds of jobs.

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. 

SAP, Europe’s largest software company, blamed US-China trade tensions for disappointing second-quarter profits that sent its shares down as much as 10 per cent.

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.