Pharmaceuticals group Takeda slumped as much as 9 per cent on Wednesday after Irish drugmaker Shire said it was willing to recommend a revised takeover proposal from the Japanese company.

Irish drugmaker Shire said its board is willing to recommend to shareholders a revised takeover proposal from Takeda Pharmaceutical that values the company at about £49 per share.

French president Emmanuel Macron has pledged to work with the US to contain Iran, hours after Donald Trump issued a tough warning against Tehran restarting its nuclear programme even if the US pulled out of an existing multi-party accord.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission criticised intentional defaults in relation to credit default swap agreements on Tuesday, warning that they could “constitute market manipulation”.

Amgen, the world’s largest biotech company, saw revenue inch higher in the first three months of 2018, with strong growth for recently launched products like its Repatha cholesterol medication softening a decline in sales of some of its more established ones.

Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals is nearing a preliminary agreement to acquire Irish drugmaker Shire for more than $62bn, in what would be the largest deal in sector this year, said people familiar with the matter.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts posted better-than-expected adjusted earnings in the first quarter following gains at its Macau properties.

US chipmaker Texas Instruments posted solid double-digit growth in both sales and profit in the first three months of 2018, citing strong demand for its products in the industrial and automotive markets.

US equities ended Tuesday deep in the red for their biggest one-day fall since April 6, with tech and industrial stocks proving the biggest laggards, while US Treasury yields ended just shy of the 3 per cent milestone they crossed earlier in the day for the first time since 2014.

A slim gain for soyabean futures has helped them avoid their longest losing streak this year, but the crop is still struggling against the broader backdrop about waning demand from China.

3M shares have peeled back easier than their ubiquitous Post-it notes and are on track for one of their biggest one-day drops in decades after the company dialed back its earnings forecasts for the year.

Wells Fargo avoided a widespread revolt at an at-times heated annual meeting on Tuesday, although a sizeable minority of investors in the scandal-hit US bank voted in favour of two shareholder motions that the board opposed.

Strong demand for energy from Brazil and improved tariffs in the US more than offset foreign exchange headwinds to help Spain’s Iberdrola top expectations for its first quarter results.

Get your tin hats on. The markets sell-off that began around midday is quickly gathering steam.

Shares of Freeport-McMoran were down more than 14 per cent on Tuesday after the company flagged further problems at its giant Indonesian gold and copper deposit

The UK government is close to completing the sale of £5bn worth of mortgages from collapsed British banks to bond fund Pimco.

Wall Street’s slide is gathering steam, as industrial heavyweight Caterpillar’s earlier post-earnings bounce shifted suddenly and fell sharply into reverse.

BP was among the day’s top performers after Goldman Sachs added the stock to its “buy” list with a 640p target price.

Altaba, formerly known as Yahoo, will pay $35m to settle charges it misled investors by failing to disclose a massive security breach, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.

France’s Kering kicked off its new guise as a pure luxury player with surging growth in the first quarter, which continued to be driven by its Gucci brand.

Wall Street gave up its gains and turned negative in late-morning trade, dragged down by declines in materials and technology stocks

The chair of the influential Treasury select committee Nicky Morgan railed against the “litany of failures of banking IT systems” on Tuesday, as customers at two different banks were left unable to access their funds.

The cash-strapped construction unit of Odebrecht, the Brazilian group at the centre of Latin America’s largest corruption scandal, said it would miss a Wednesday deadline for a R$500m debt payment.

President Donald Trump warned Iran not to restart its nuclear programme even if the US pulls out of the multi-party deal through which Tehran agreed to limits.