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Stocks edged higher in Asia and futures markets tipped European shares to rally on Thursday after the US House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling, sending the bill to the Senate where it is expected to be passed. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng stock index and Japan’s Topix both rose 0.8 per cent,

The drive for diversification is pushing more innovation in the market. Since the first two US exchange traded funds offering exposure to collateralised loan obligations launched in 2020, seven more have come to market, Morningstar data shows. In all, the ETFs have about $2.8bn in assets under management. CLOs performed strongly during the Federal Reserve’s

France is stoking controversy again, with another one of its bans. But it’s not burkas this time, or Anglicisms, or even the use of meaty words to describe plant-based food. This time, it’s a holy tenet of modern life that the French have dared to wage war against: convenience. A new law came into force

Kevin McCarthy was in celebration mode on Wednesday night after convincing lawmakers to pass his deal with President Joe Biden to avoid a US debt default. “We decided that you had to spend less, and we achieved that goal,” the Speaker of the House of Representatives told reporters in the US Capitol. “Is it everything

Inside a “clean room” within ASML’s sprawling campus in the Dutch town of Veldhoven, dozens of men and women in hazmat suits are breathing air that is 10,000-times more purified than in an operating theatre. They are working on the first prototype of the chip toolmaker’s newest product: the latest generation of extreme ultraviolet photolithography

Shares of petcare retailer Chewy surged as much as 13 per cent after it posted a surprise profit and a strong full-year outlook. The company earned $22.2mn in net income, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase and a shock to analysts, who expected a loss of $10.6mn. Its $2.78bn in sales was a 14 per

A future British government should adopt a “general policy” of aligning with EU regulations to improve post-Brexit trade, an independent cross-party business group said on Wednesday. The recommendation to align with EU standards across swaths of manufacturing and general goods trade was among 114 proposals made in a report published by the UK Trade and

A bill to raise the debt ceiling cleared a significant hurdle on Wednesday afternoon, after Democratic lawmakers supported Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and allowed the bipartisan deal to advance to a full vote. In order to see off a rebellion from members from his own party, McCarthy was forced to rely on

ExxonMobil and Chevron shareholders solidly rejected climate change proposals at the US oil majors’ annual meetings on Wednesday, scaling back support from last year and splitting with results at peers in Europe where resolutions related to global warming have won stronger support. Only 11 per cent of Exxon shareholders supported a petition calling for the

JPMorgan chair Jamie Dimon has warned of the risk for investor confidence of “uncertainty” about the Chinese government’s policies, as manufacturing data showed that the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is faltering. His comments came as a contraction in China’s factory activity cast doubt over the country’s growth prospects, shaking regional equity markets against

When the former US president Donald Trump was found liable of the sexual abuse of journalist E Jean Carroll last month, some observers might have hoped this would make him less appealing to American voters. Not so. If you look at a Quinnipiac poll released in late May, Trump now has the backing of 56

The earth is already past safe limits for humans as temperature rise, water system disruption and destruction of natural habitats have reached boundaries, a study by a group of the world’s foremost scientists has found. The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, identified eight earth system boundaries that included climate, biodiversity, water, natural

Lansdowne Partners has agreed to buy UK investment boutique Crux Asset Management, a move that cements its evolution in recent years from one of Europe’s top hedge funds into a mainstream asset manager.  The deal for Crux, which runs $1.1bn largely for UK wealth management clients, illustrates how rising costs and shrinking margins are forcing

To borrow Oscar Wilde’s quip about the death of Little Nell, it would take a heart of stone not to hear the wails of free-market Brexiters without laughing. Recent weeks have seen a flurry of laments, fury and blame-shifting by leading Leavers, from Nigel Farage to Lord Frost. But perhaps the most striking was an

Global stocks and US futures slipped on Wednesday, as poor economic data from China damped traders’ hopes for a swift post-pandemic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 was down 0.2 per cent, Germany’s Dax lost 0.3 per cent, France’s Cac 40 fell 0.5 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 was flat.

Shakespeare foretold the tale of America’s latest debt-ceiling crisis — full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The final deal, which will probably be passed this weekend, could also have been scripted by Joe Biden. Rarely in the history of fiscal brinkmanship has so much noise been made by so many Republicans with so little

The world’s largest natural soda ash producer plans to float in London, a boost to a stock market that has struggled to attract new listings and prevent companies from leaving. WE Soda, the UK-based group that produces the glassmaking ingredient and is controlled by Turkish media mogul Turgay Ciner, is targeting a $7.5bn valuation, enough

A group of 255 of the UK’s top private equity dealmakers earned £2.7bn in carried interest in a single year, the kind of gain that has drawn scrutiny from politicians threatening to increase taxes on the industry. The haul accounted for about 80 per cent of all carried interest — the slice of profits private

As the vote results came in, HSBC chair Mark Tucker could finally declare victory at the end of a fractious annual general meeting in Birmingham this month. Tucker had spent a torrid year locked in a war of words with HSBC’s largest shareholder, Chinese insurer Ping An, who had turned activist at the bank’s previous

Former ministers will be banned from lobbying the UK government for at least five years after leaving office and transgressors fined under a Labour government, according to plans to be put before the party’s policymaking body this summer. Senior officials said the move, which comes as the party finalises its general election manifesto, was part