Global

The head of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is to be quizzed by MPs this afternoon over claims he allowed Goldman Sachs to escape £10m in interest payments on an offshore tax avoidance scheme.

French bank Société Générale was the victim of an alleged multi-million pound fraud which occurred within weeks of the much-publicised €4bn fraud by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel - but it was never disclosed to shareholders.

Jason Hepner, CFA, investment director of global strategy at Standard Life Investments, steps up to our Soapbox

We were delighted to welcome Fidelity's Anthony Bolton as the keynote speaker at the Investment Week Senate Autumn Conference 2011.

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress the US economy is "close to faltering" and more action may be needed.

Confidence in the UK economy amongst advisers has fallen by 5% this quarter, Skandia says.

Another year, another Japanese prime minister. Thankfully, when we buy Japanese equities, we are buying Japanese companies, not the Japanese economy and certainly not the Japanese government.

(Updated 2pm) Continued heavy selling saw London's FTSE 100 slump by more than 4.9% to its lowest level in a month after the Federal Reserve painted a gloomy picture of the global economy.

The Federal Reserve will not pump extra money into the ailing US economy, but policymakers last night unveiled a new scheme which they hope will stimulate growth.

Fidelity's Anthony Bolton has said he remains a world equity market bull despite a global situation that he said resembles "a big game of poker".