Weekly review
The FTSE 100 ended the week 48.0 points lower at 7,633.91.
Equity view
Specialist information company Ascential has announced the acquisition of global digital subscription business WARC for up to £24m.
Tesco's UK and Irish sales slowed slightly in the first quarter of its new financial year but with wholesale acquisition Booker bedding down, group-wide growth accelerated slightly ahead of expectations.
Specialist healthcare group BTG received some bad news overnight from an advisory committee to the US drug regulator, which voted against the approval of its treatment for severe emphysema.
Building materials group CRH said on Friday that it has received regulatory approval for its $3.5bn acquisition of Kansas-based cement manufacturer Ash Grove.
Comcast made a $65bn bid to buy 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets overnight, trumping an earlier takeover agreed with Disney for just over $52bn.
Rathbone Brothers has agreed to acquire Scotland's largest independent wealth manager, Speirs & Jeffrey, for an initial cash and shares consideration of £104m.
Rolls-Royce has announced 4,600 job cuts – mainly in the UK – to save £400m a year in the latest round of restructuring under chief executive Warren East.
Anglo American has agreed to sell a stake in its Quellaveco copper project in Peru to Mitsubishi Corporation for $500m that could rise to $600m in order to plough ahead with development.
British luxury brand Mulberry posted a drop in annual profit on Wednesday on the back of start-up costs for its operations in Asia, as it announced a new business agreement in South Korea.
The accounting regulator has fined PwC £6.5m for misconduct related to the audits of Philip Green’s BHS before the retail chain’s collapse.
A US federal judge cleared AT&T's planned acquisition of Time Warner overnight, drawing to a close the six-week antitrust trial which saw regulators and the White House argue that the $85bn deal would give AT&T undue leverage.
AIM-listed mobile commerce company Bango has inked a deal that will allow subscribers of Chile's largest mobile phone network to pay using their phone bill for content and services sold in Google Play.
AstraZeneca, alongside its partner Eli Lilly and Company, announced on Tuesday the discontinuation of the global Phase III clinical trials of lanabecestat, an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor, for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
British American Tobacco said it was trading in line with expectations but that profit would be affected by significant currency fluctuations.
Fashion brand Ted Baker posted a jump in revenue for the 19 weeks to 9 June despite unseasonal weather across Europe and the East Coast of America and still-challenging external trading conditions across many of its global markets.
Bellway said it was on track for strong earnings growth this year as the housebuilder predicted record annual sales of more than 10,000 homes.
Private equity group Apax Partners is mulling a potential buyout of BCA Marketplace, the car auction house and owner of WeBuyAnyCar.com, which rejected an earlier approach.
NMC Health has signed an agreement to form a joint-venture healthcare platform with the investment arm of Saudi Arabia's largest pension fund, the General Organization for Social Insurance, looking to take part in the kingdom's privatisation program.
Rolls-Royce said on Monday that it has identified a durability issue with some Trent 1000 'Package B' engines that are used by Boeing.
Vodafone’s South Africa operation Vodacom announced a transaction to support incremental broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) and ownership in Vodacom on Monday.
Economic news
Theresa May’s government is back on rocky ground after abandoning a compromise over parliaments role in Brexit negotiations and enraging pro-EU tory rebels.
UK retail sales increased more than expected last month, thanks to boosts from warmer weather, the royal wedding and FA Cup, the Office for National Statistics said.
Social media firms should do more to help the NHS tackle mental health issues in young people said NHS boss Simon Stevens.
Inflation was unchanged at 2.4% in May, further weakening the case for the Bank of England to increase interest rates in August.
House price rises slowed in April but prices in London have stopped falling, official figures showed on Wednesday.
A junior minister has resigned in protest against the government’s handling of Brexit, with others reported to be threatening to do so, dealing a major blow to the Prime Minister on the day of a key Commons vote on the EU withdrawal bill.
Key players from the Leave.EU platform, Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, face a grilling from MPs on Tuesday over alleged meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign.
Jaguar Land Rover is to move all production of its Discovery vehicle range from Solihull, England to Slovakia, to make way for the retooling of the factory to accommodate the assembly of electric vehicles, as well as gasoline and diesel versions.
UK consumers could save up to £1.6bn on their energy bills if the government backs the construction of more onshore wind farms.
International events
The US Department of Justice has backed down over the mega merger between AT&T and Time Warner, which could set in train a raft of further giant deals.
US President Donald Trump decided to impose $50bn tariffs on Chinese products regardless of the risk of provoking a trade war.
Chinese house price growth was steady in May following the sharp slowdown seen over the back half of 2017.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a conference in Seoul with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Thursday that the US would not lift economic sanctions on North Korea until the "complete denuclearisation" of the country.
Initial US jobless claims drifted slightly lower last week, with secondary claims moving to fresh multi-decade lows.
Levels of employment in the single currency bloc pushed further above their crisis peaks in 2008 over the course of the first quarter of 2018, led by the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
Pushed by the new Socialist government in power, Spanish lawmakers have agreed to link annual public pension payments to consumer price inflation.
The 2018 Russia World Cup has had trouble securing sponsorship compared to other years, research has found, but Chinese firms have stepped up to help Fifa weather the storm.
The cost of living in the US hit a six-year high last month, pushed higher by big jumps in the prices of gasoline and medical care commodities, together with sustained strength in shelter prices.
Italian industrial output fell more sharply than expected in April, led by a drop in energy production.
Ofgem outlined the scope of its review of its approach to licensing energy suppliers on Monday.