Bank of America

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has named its top ten trades for this autumn as investors prepare for a tapering of QE in the US and a possible jump in interest rates.

Analysts at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch have tipped the FTSE 100 to rise to 7,400 next year, citing the strengthening economy and an accommodating central bank as reasons why stocks can reach such highs.

SECTOR REPORT

Barclays was among six global banking groups downgraded by Fitch last night, with the ratings agency citing the challenging financial markets.

Royal Bank of Scotland is facing legal action over the collapse of MF Global after two pension funds accused the bank of making misleading statements about the broker's $6.3bn (£3.9bn) exposure to European sovereign debt.

HSBC and Standard Chartered could be dragged into a multi-billion dollar dispute between warring Saudi factions after the banks were forced to hand over thousands of potentially incriminating documents.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group lost more than $2bn on derivatives related to stock market performance in Q3.

The FTSE 100 is 1.3% lower after slowing Chinese GDP data and a Moody's warning over France's AAA-rating weighed on sentiment.

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggest activity in the UK fell for a sixth straight month in July and at its steepest rate since June 2010.

It's our round-up of Friday's national finance news...