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The US government has asked JPMorgan, PNC and several other financial groups to bid for all or part of First Republic, as US regulators try to determine how much it would cost taxpayers to take over the embattled California lender. Over the past 24 hours, it has become clear to both First Republic and the

Hedge funds betting against US technology stocks have been battered by $18bn of losses after Big Tech’s robust earnings fuelled a sharp rebound in the sector. Crispin Odey and James Hanbury are among the hedge fund managers burned by a 16 per cent rally in the Nasdaq Composite this year, as a number of stocks

The UK government is set to abandon its controversial plan to review or scrap all EU-era law by the end of 2023, in a move which has sparked fury among Tory Eurosceptics. Kemi Badenoch, business secretary, told Tory Brexiters this week that the majority of almost 4,000 pieces of retained EU law would remain on

The UK competition regulator has blocked Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of the Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, in a possibly fatal blow to the software giant’s biggest-ever deal. The Competition & Markets Authority said on Wednesday it believed the company would be commercially motivated to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service.

Shares of First Republic continued to plunge on Tuesday as regulators in Washington and financiers on Wall Street scrambled to come up with a plan to stabilise the ailing bank. The California-based lender’s stock price, which is down by more than 90 per cent this year, fell by a further 40 per cent, a day

The EU and Japan have pushed back against a US proposal for G7 countries to ban all exports to Russia, as part of negotiations ahead of a summit of the world’s most advanced economies. A G7 leaders’ statement being drafted for their meeting in Hiroshima next month includes a pledge to replace the current sector-by-sector

European governments have reacted with anger and dismay to comments by a Chinese diplomat questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who regained their independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, have said they will summon Chinese diplomats on Monday to complain about

A lobbying firm is launching a one-year business engagement operation ahead of the next general election in what is likely to be one of multiple attempts to exploit the vacuum left by the crisis at the CBI. WPI Strategy, a public affairs group behind the imminent launch of “BizUK”, insisted that it was not trying

Many of the biggest names in British business quit the CBI on Friday after a second allegation of rape threatened the survival of the employers’ organisation. Groups ranging from insurer Aviva and car manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover and BMW to payments company Mastercard and retailer John Lewis said they were cancelling their memberships after the

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has warned that any effort to decouple from China would be “disastrous” as she said that national security measures targeted at Beijing were not designed to “stifle” the Chinese economy. In a major speech on Thursday, Yellen called for a “constructive and fair” economic relationship between China and the US,

Morgan Stanley boss James Gorman has warned that investment banking revenues may not recover until next year after the Wall Street group’s net profits fell almost a fifth in the first quarter. A prolonged slowdown in investment banking activity has hit Morgan Stanley and its rivals as financial turmoil following the collapse of US regional

Chinese insurer Ping An said HSBC had “exaggerated” the “costs and risks” of spinning off its Asian operations, as the bank’s largest shareholder used a rare public statement to ramp up pressure on the lender to separate its business. Michael Huang, chair of Ping An Asset Management, said in a statement on Tuesday that although a

Shares in US bank State Street dropped 10 per cent in pre-market trading as quarterly profits missed expectations and fees were hit by subdued markets and reduced assets under management. The huge custody bank, which is also a large provider of index mutual funds and exchange traded funds, said assets under management in its investment

Companies have committed more than $200bn to US manufacturing projects since Congress passed sweeping subsidies last year, as president Joe Biden’s effort to spark a new industrial revolution gains momentum. The investment in semiconductor and clean tech investments is almost double the commitments made in the same sectors in the whole of 2021, and nearly

Hedge funds and other parts of the shadow banking system should face greater scrutiny after last month’s upheaval in US government bonds, the country’s top markets regulator has said, reflecting concerns that speculative investors pose a risk to financial stability. Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Financial Times that taming

Elon Musk is developing plans to launch a new artificial intelligence start-up to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, as the billionaire seeks to join Silicon Valley’s race to build generative AI systems. The Tesla and Twitter chief is assembling a team of artificial intelligence researchers and engineers, according to people familiar with the tech entrepreneur’s plans.

EY’s UK bosses have told partners to prepare for a fresh cost-cutting plan and a stream of staff departures as they admitted to embarrassment at the collapse of the firm’s long-running attempt to split its global business in two. On a call with partners on Wednesday, Anna Anthony, UK managing partner for financial services, said:

US inflation eased last month to its lowest level in nearly two years but an uptick in core prices will keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to press ahead with another interest rate increase in May. The consumer price index for March rose by 5 per cent year on year, according to data published by

EY has called off the plan to break up its audit and consulting businesses after months of internal disagreement and opposition from executives in the US. The Big Four firm communicated the decision on Tuesday in a note to partners, which was seen by the Financial Times. The plan, code named “Project Everest”, was approved

Corporate America is facing its sharpest drop in profits since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, according to Wall Street forecasts, as high inflation squeezes margins and fears of an impending recession hold back demand. Companies on the S&P 500 index are expected to report a 6.8 per cent decline in first-quarter earnings compared