UK stocks have roared higher for the second day with Boris Johnson’s election victory helping to alleviate uncertainty that has weighed heavily on markets this year. 

UK business activity slowed sharply in the run-up to last week’s election, with political uncertainty compounding the lack of clarity over Brexit and the drag from weaker global growth.

Manufacturing activity lost further momentum in the eurozone’s two largest economies while services remained resilient, according to a closely watched survey pointing to Germany’s weak economic performance continuing at the end of the year.

FirstGroup has appointed advisers over a potential sale of two of its North American businesses, one month after a share price plunge prompted two major shareholders to urge the UK transport group to offload its US assets.

UK-based Cineworld has announced that it plans to acquire the Canadian cinema chain Cineplex in a deal that would make it the largest cinema group in North America by number of screens.

Sports Direct, the retail group controlled by retail billionaire Mike Ashley, said it expects underlying earnings for the full year to grow by between 5 and 15 per cent after reporting “green shoots of recovery” at House of Fraser.

The UK general election may be over and a “phase one” trade deal between the US and China agreed, but there is still much that should keep the news cycle from slowing too much before the holidays.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a trio of appeals involving demands for Donald Trump’s financial records, setting up a potentially blockbuster ruling on whether a sitting US president is shielded from investigation.

US stocks withstood a choppy session to close — by slim margins — at record highs in the wake of China announcing it agreed a gradual reduction in tariffs as part of an interim trade deal between Beijing and Washington.

US consumers cut back on discretionary spending at the start of the holiday shopping season, signalling that a key driver of economic growth may have cooled more than expected in the fourth quarter.

Stocks across Asia jumped on Friday as political risks appeared to melt away, with the ruling Conservative party on course to win the UK’s general election and the emergence of a possible US-China trade deal.

US stocks jumped, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to record closing highs, after Donald Trump spurred investor hopes a “BIG DEAL” on trade between the US and China was close.

The co-founder of Bonobos is leaving Walmart little more than two years after he agreed to sell the online men’s clothing store to the US retailer and took charge of its burgeoning collection of digitally focused brands.

An underlying measure of US whole sales prices was unexpectedly unchanged in November, signalling inflation remains subdued.

Several factors including design, poor drainage and heavy rainfall caused the deadly dam breach at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão mine in January, according to an independent report commissioned by the company.

Palladium — the metal of choice for the discerning car thief — powered to a record high on Thursday on fears of a supply crunch.

Industrial production in the eurozone contracted in October, dragged lower by a steepening downturn in Germany and Italy, although French factories’ output expanded thanks to their specialisation in consumer goods.

Turkey’s central bank has slashed its benchmark interest rate for the fourth time this year as it pushed ahead with a drive to kick-start lending and revive economic growth.

The Swiss National Bank warned on Thursday against the politicisation of monetary policy with climate change activism, even as it sought to damp public disquiet over its now five-year-old policy of negative interest rates.

Argentina’s new economy minister, Martín Guzmán, pledged that the new government would avoid confrontation and seek constructive relations with its creditors, as it seeks to stave off its ninth sovereign debt default.

The shale oil pioneer Harold Hamm plans to step aside as chief executive of Continental Resources a half century after he founded it, the company said on Wednesday. 

Brazil’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a fourth straight meeting, shrugging off a drop in the currency.

US stocks closed within a whisker of record highs, buoyed on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve’s confidence in the labour market and the central bank’s projection interest rates would remain on hold through 2020.

The Federal Reserve in December opted to leave rates on hold as expected and ditched language referencing “uncertainties” in its outlook in its latest statement.