Fidelity Top Stories
GKN shareholders accept Melrose Industries' £8.1bn hostile bid
GKN shareholders have accepted turnaround specialist Melrose Industries' £8. 1bn bid for the engineer, ending a two-and-a-half month saga that has involved intervention from the government and countless tit-for-tat exchanges between the two companies.
Barclays settles with DoJ ahead of schedule, shares spike higher
Barclays has settled its long-running case with America's Department of Justice over its alleged conduct involving mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the Great Financial Crisis ahead of schedule.
Consumer and business borrowing accelerate, BoE figures show
Consumers and businesses borrowed at a faster rate in February, suggesting a firming of confidence in the economy after a shaky few months.
UK growth remains slow, but services sector picks up
A deluge of UK data on Thursday confirmed economic growth slowed at the end of last year, though more timely figures show the services sector is beginning to pick up.
Shire surges on buy-out interest
Shares of Shire rocketed after Japanese rival Takeda Pharmaceutical said it was considering a buy-out of the company.
More bad news for retailers from the CBI
Retailers sustained a fall in sales over a snow-affected February, a survey from the CBI showed on Wednesday.
May says 'long term international response' against Russia in the works
Theresa May has said that the expulsion of Russian diplomats from almost two dozen countries was not done out of solidarity with the UK, but as an acknowledgement by foreign capitals of the serious threat posed by Russia’s behaviour. The Prime Minister also said that further sanctions were under discussion.
Ladbrokes Coral to leave FTSE 100 as index's founders drop like flies
Ladbrokes Coral is set to become the 52nd founding member of the FTSE 100 to disappear as the company remains on track to be acquired by GVC.
BoE considers stronger buffers for banks due to mortgage risks
The Bank of England has warned that lenders have loosened standards on risky mortgages and that it is considering strengthening banks' capital buffers to dampen risk appetite.
US and EU expel Russian diplomats in response to Salisbury poisoning
The US has expelled 60 Russian diplomats and 12 European Union member states have coordinated a response against Moscow over the former spy poisoning in the UK.
Mnuchin 'cautiously optimistic' that US and China can reach agreement on tariffs
US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that the US was having "very productive conversations" with China, noting that he was hopeful the White House would be able to reach an agreement with Beijing that would negate Donald Trump's need to impose tariffs on the estimated $50bn-worth of goods from the nation.
Next investors take positives as profits fall and will fall again
Profits fell at Next for the third year in a row in 2017 and are expected to fall again in 2018 as falling store sales and good online growth largely cancel each other out and the clothing retailer looks to "attack costs" and "defend sales and profitability".
China supports stocks, but US tariffs 'not as bad as thought'
The threat of a trade war between the world's two biggest economies did not have as big an effect on Chinese stocks after Beijing intervened to support its stock market on Friday, while economists said US tariffs were not as big as had been feared.
MPC votes to keep rates unchanged by 7-2 in March
The Bank of England left the way open for interest rates to rise in May after policymakers voted 7-2 in favour of leaving borrowing costs unchanged.
UK retail sales bounce back after two-month decline
UK retail sales last month bounced back more strongly than expected after two months of declines, though non-food store sales continued to wane.
Eurozone growth could slow to 14-month low, PMI survey finds
Eurozone business activity in March grew at the slowest rate in 14 months, with disappointing manufacturing and services PMI surveys on Thursday.
De La Rue calls on government to reverse blue passport decision
De La Rue’s chief executive has called on the government to reverse its decision to award the contract for making post-Brexit blue passports to a Franco-Dutch company.
Reckitt Benckiser quits bidding for Pfizer's consumer healthcare arm
Reckitt Benckiser has ended discussions with Pfizer about buying elements of the US company’s consumer healthcare business.
FOMC raises rates, two more hikes still seen in 2018
The US central bank tightened policy on Thursday, as expected, amid a modest upwards shift in policymakers' own expectations for the path of official interest rates in 2019 and 2020.
Bonds: 'Bull steepening' in Treasury yield curve after March FOMC
These were the movements in some of the most-widely followed 10-year sovereign bond yields: US: 2. 88% (-1bp) UK: 1. 53% (+4bp) Germany: 0. 59% (+1bp) France: 0. 83% (+0bp) Spain: 1. 34% (+3bp) Italy: 1. 93% (+4bp) Portugal: 1. 76% (+3bp) Greece: 4. 22% (+3bp) Japan: 0. 04% (+0bp).