American Eagle Outfitters, the teen retailer with a popular lingerie brand, on Tuesday posted a smaller than expected rise in quarterly sales and delivered a disappointing earnings outlook for the holiday quarter.

Sterling took a leg lower to hit its weakest level in 20 months on Tuesday as political uncertainties, which have increased dramatically over the past 24 hours after UK prime minister Theresa May delayed the parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, keep the currency under pressure.

Wall Street turned lower on Tuesday, erasing earlier gains as President Donald Trump’s threat to allow a government shutdown damped optimism over US-China trade relations.

Verizon has scaled back ambitions to become a digital media powerhouse after writing off almost $5bn from Oath, the struggling division assembled through the costly acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo.

EU antitrust officials have launched an in-depth probe into Vodafone’s €18.4bn purchase of Liberty Global’s cable assets in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Romania.

A deceleration in earnings growth and fading economic stimulus should let a little more air out of a buoyant US stock market in 2019, according to Wall Street strategists.

Pressure on the Labour party to force a vote of no confidence in Theresa May intensified on Tuesday after the Scottish National party suggested that other opposition parties would — if necessary — start the process themselves.

Wall Street was on shaky ground at lunchtime in New York, with both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average turning negative.

Brussels has approved Thales’ €4.8bn purchase of Dutch security company Gemalto after the French aerospace and defence group promised to sell its global nShield business to address EU antitrust concerns.

Stitch Fix shares lost more than one-quarter of their value on Tuesday as disappointing user growth heading into the critical holiday shopping period overshadowed a sales boost from the addition of new apparel brands.

After months of speculation, French utility company Engie has finally said that it will keep its 32 per cent stake in Suez, the struggling water and waste management group.

Wall Street appeared to have found its footing on Tuesday amid signs relations between the US and China may be thawing on hopes that Beijing was readying to cut tariffs on US-made cars.

Brussels is to offer Switzerland a temporary reprieve in a stand-off over the small Alpine country’s relations with the EU by allowing the bloc’s banks and brokers access to its stock market for another half year.

Dell Technologies won shareholder approval for a complex $23.9bn plan to buy back a tracking stock and list itself on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that will return the PC and technology behemoth to public markets for the first time since 2013.

Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler said it will spend €20bn on battery cells over the next decade, to meet its ambitious target to electrify its entire product line.

UK shale gas company Cuadrilla has paused fracking activity at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire, north-west England after a tremor exceeded the “red light” limit permitted by its operating license.

Leo Varadkar has insisted Britain can remove the threat of a no-deal Brexit “at any time” by revoking or extending its Article 50 procedure to leave the EU if Theresa May cannot reach an agreement to break the deadlock in Westminster.

EU legislators failed to agree 2030 targets for car and van CO2 emissions on Tuesday, ramping up the pressure to find a compromise before Parliament breaks for elections in May.

Carlos Ghosn will remain behind bars without the possibility of bail until December 20 after the Tokyo District Court immediately rejected his appeal to end his detention. 

The pace of wholesale inflation in the US slowed in November, as the sharp sell-off in crude prices last month helped drag energy costs lower and ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to step up its pace of interest rate tightening.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London and chair of Transport for London, has criticised the government for “forcing London to pay twice” for the delayed Crossrail line and said TfL would only be able to fund it with “extreme difficulty”.

US stock-index futures were higher on Tuesday amid hopes of progress in the US-China trade war.

Major UK outsourcers were thrown into the spotlight this year following the collapse of Carillion with investors and government officials alike fretting over the possibility of further failures amid the slew of warnings that emerged from its peers.

Shares in US automakers have motored ahead by more than 2 per cent in pre-market trade — and taken European rivals along for the ride — after media reports China is moving towards cutting the tariffs it placed on American-made vehicles.