Economics / Markets

The FTSE 100 climbed this morning and Asian and US markets rallied strongly overnight as the Federal Reserve announced it would hold interest rates at close to zero until 2013.

Standard Life has reported UK pre-tax operating profits up 14% in the first half, driven by lower commission costs as IFAs switch to fee-charging.

Bulls triumph over bears, Fed freezes short-term rates, and pension funds take a beating from stock market turmoil...IFAonline's round-up of the news from the nationals.

US markets have opened higher after a calmer atmosphere saw the FTSE 100 recover the day's losses.

Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 1,300 jobs across its group functions, retail, group operations and wealth and international divisions.

Update (1:07pm): The FTSE briefly joined the bear-market club on Tuesday before regaining most of the day's losses as global markets continue to experience extreme volatility.

Bank of America's share price fell by 20% as US financials were routed in Monday trading over growth fears and S&P's downgrade of the US credit rating.

Growth in the UK has deteriorated for the sixth consecutive month while the global recovery has peaked, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Update 4pm: Heavy losses in the battered US markets have spread to the UK and sent the index of 100 leading shares down 3.3%.

Global stock markets have slipped deeper into negative territory as investors continue to fret about the US downgrade and the eurozone debt crisis.