BP had equipment available that could have sealed its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico within a month of it blowing out in April 2010, two months earlier than the spill was actually ended, the trial ...

US defence and aerospace contractors moved mostly higher to recover some recent losses as investors greeted the first day of a government shutdown in Washington with a rally. United Technologies, which ...

When does quitting as chief executive of a bank mean not really quitting? When the bank is Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo. The country's stock market regulator has demanded an explanation from Intesa of why Enrico ...

Lloyds Banking Group is closing in on the sale of its remaining Australian operations, with a trio of bidders competing for the UK state-backed bank's corporate loan, motor and equipment financing businesses. ...

Experian, the credit checking and information services company, has agreed to buy US-based fraud protection provider 41st Parameter in a $324m deal that boosts Experian's reach in fighting web and mobile ...

Merck shares were up 2.38 per cent to $48.74 at the close in New York. , Merck, the US drugmaker, is to cut a fifth of its workforce within two years as part of a plan to narrow the focus of its business ...

BAE Systems has won its first sizeable contract to maintain a fleet of civil aircraft, representing a shift towards commercial, rather than military, business for Europe's biggest defence contractor. BAE ...

We should have known it was the banks' fault: first too reckless, now too cautious. As if causing the financial crisis were not enough, insisting that would-be homeowners produce sizeable deposits has, ...

From Mr Ted J Nieman. Sir, Your article "Uralkali and CIC - will China call the shots?" (beyondbrics, FT.com September 25) contains an incorrect and misleading assertion about the existence of ...

High-risk home loans advanced by lenders in the boom years have proved a costly legacy for the government. The £491bn of mortgages controlled by state-backed lenders - including now-defunct Northern Rock ...

George Osborne was applauded loudly as he told an audience this week: "I am a believer in freedom and free markets." Yet critics say that declaration jars with the Chancellor's £130bn state venture ...

Some of Britain's leading mortgage lenders have expressed misgivings about the government's latest "Help to Buy" initiative, leaving the state-backed banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds as ...

The impact of the US government shutdown was felt immediately, forcing up to 800,000 workers on to unpaid leave, leaving agencies on skeleton staff and curbing government services. The most high-profile ...

Activist investor Carl Icahn stepped up his campaign for Apple to return cash to investors, saying he had made the case to chief executive Tim Cook for a $150bn buyback. Shares in Apple rose 2.2 per cent ...

The battle for control of fallen Scottish football club Rangers, which reported an operating loss of £14.4m for last season, is set to flare up again at the club's annual meeting in three weeks' time. ...

Multinational companies are buying more financial protection against swings in emerging market currencies, after being hit by a summer of volatility in countries that account for an increasingly large ...

Against bright lights and with plenty of fanfare, France's Bouygues Telecom on Tuesday trumpeted the launch of fourth-generation mobile services that promise lightning-fast navigation and speedy downloads. ...

Autogrill, the world's largest duty-free and travel catering group by sales, celebrated the splitting of its two core businesses on Tuesday, with shares in newly listed World Duty Free up 3 per cent and ...

Markit, the financial data provider, has appointed Jeff Gooch, head of its trade processing business MarkitServ, as chief financial officer, according to two people familiar with the situation. Mr Gooch, ...

Visa, MasterCard and American Express are proposing a new industry standard to makes online payments more secure, by eliminating the need to enter account numbers when shopping online or on mobile devices. ...

Jaguar Land Rover is close to signing a deal to build a factory in Brazil, one of its key growth markets, to keep pace with rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The plant, which would assemble cars from parts ...

Just two paragraphs long, Unilever's overnight profit warning may have been brief but its effects were wide. Aggreko dropped to a two-year low in reaction to Unilever's warning that currency devaluations ...

The private consortium in charge of the clean-up of nuclear waste at Sellafield in Cumbria is closing in on a deal to extend its £22bn contract, despite widespread criticism of its performance over the ...

ITE Group, the exhibitions company focused on emerging markets, highlighted the strength of demand for face-to-face events as it posted double-digit growth in full-year revenues. The FTSE 250 group, which ...

It is easy to debate which has the superior political system, China or the west, but only one of them has solved the age-old dilemma: how to keep elderly parents happy without ever having to go to the ...

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has bought NYSE Euronext's 12 per cent stake in the gas-rich state's stock exchange, ending a four-year partnership between the two bourses. Qatar Holding, the direct investment ...

Payouts to investors in the UK's largest listed companies have outstripped earnings by so much recently that profits now cover a far smaller multiple of the dividends than they did less than two years ...

Eike Batista, the Brazilian tycoon, took a step towards what is expected to be Latin America's biggest corporate default after his oil exploration company OGX decided to miss an interest payment due on ...

September sales in the US by General Motors, the US's biggest carmaker by sales, fell 11 per cent compared with last year, as August's sharp sales growth fell off across much of the US motor industry. ...

The US federal government has shut down. Is this a disaster for the economy? Not for now. The only immediate hit to economic activity is the federal workers who are twiddling their thumbs at home. BofA ...

Norilsk Nickel plans to pay lower dividends than previously promised for the next two years, in a vital compromise between its rival shareholders Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska. The company's shareholders ...

Tightened belts have led to bulging sales at discount retailers and cheap grocers in the past few years. But even those in less straitened circumstances have started hunting for a bargain, with pound shops ...

One of the best-known advertising slogans in British business - "Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it" - has been dumped by the tour operator in favour of a simple alternative devised by Harriet ...

The US commodities regulator has accidentally shared details about a crucial informant in its only market manipulation case to address the massive oil price spike of 2008, court documents reveal. Lawyers ...

Amid the partisan rancour, little patches of agreement persist. Consider the excise tax on medical devices, which helps to fund President Obama's healthcare reforms. A repeal of the tax has been floated ...

Brian Powers was a hotshot investment banker in his mid-30s when he arrived in 1986 as chief strategist at Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong's original conglomerate trading house. It took less than a year for ...

SGX, the Singapore exchange, is looking for a replacement for David Battle as chief representative for its London office as it embarks on an expansion of its overseas presence aimed at boosting participation ...

Peer-to-peer lenders that seek to cut out traditional banks have turned to one of Wall Street's most controversial techniques - securitisation. Peer-to-peer, or "P2P", companies have been expanding ...

Unilever's warning that "significant currency weakening" in emerging markets would cause quarterly sales growth to slow reminded investors this week that currency effects will weigh on European ...

Is history repeating itself at Unilever? In the wake of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the currency shocks that accompanied it, emerging-market organic sales growth at the consumer goods group ...

What is not to like about an oilfield that over its lifetime is expected to generate revenue the equivalent of the annual gross domestic product of Austria? Or, whose estimated reserves of 8bn-12bn barrels ...

The new chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank International is resisting pressure to raise fresh capital, as Austria's second-largest lender by assets focuses on other measures to boost its financial stability. ...

Analysts at JPMorgan said: "We believe top-line momentum will weaken meaningfully across the board due to a deceleration in emerging markets (and weakening pricing)." Unilever's profit warning ...

Make a note of these names: Wharf Holdings, Henderson Land and Hang Lung. In 1987, these Hong Kong giants were among those reported by the Financial Times to be interested in seeking, along with Li Ka-shing's ...

Vivendi said that its Brazilian subsidiary had begun negotiations with EchoStar Technologies to provide pay-TV services throughout the country. The planned tie-up with EchoStar, a US-based provider of ...

Chicago Board Options Exchange, is to launch a new short-term volatility index covering just nine days as it puts developments of more risk gauges for investors at the heart of its expansion plans. The ...

Corporate America is once more pouring cold water on expectations for its quarterly results, but Wall Street investors say they are not buying into gloom. With third quarter reporting season getting under ...

The Detroit Three - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - are facing a significant challenge in trying to keep up with demand for their vehicles. Many plants are running at full capacity, while others are ...