Economics / Markets

The FTSE 100 fell towards the 6,000 mark mid-afternoon as weaker than expected US jobs data combined with a sell-off in commodities to weigh on shares.

Declines in metals and other commodity prices caused global indices to drop in Wednesday trading.

Oil major BP has agreed a deal with the US Department of Justice to pay $25m following the Prudhoe Bay oil spill in 2006.

Portugal's caretaker prime minister Jose Socrates has announced he has reached agreement on a bail-out from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

High street sales remained sluggish in April, despite the volume of sales rising compared with last year, said the CBI.

UK consumers will see their disposable income fall by £780 per household this year, according to a Deloitte report.

Artemis has hired Simon Edelsten and Alex Illingworth to build a new global stockpicking franchise for retail and institutional clients.

Nationals round-up: Interest rates are on the agenda this week while clients may also be taking an interest in income protection, private banking and cars.

The Bank of England will not hike interest rates until 2013 as the economic recovery remains "pretty weak," former Treasury adviser Roger Bootle has said, a day after Bank Governor Mervyn King dismissed an early rise due to the "sheer volume of debt in...

Lehman Brothers Holdings is claiming $500m from Barclays for allegedly failing to pay all of the bonuses agreed to when it bought the defunct investment firm's North American business.