MARKETS

Mike Ashley takes control at Sport Direct in an otherwise quiet end to the week.

The UK government has pledged to boost defence spending by nearly £5bn by 2020/21.

Oil futures slide as market unconvinced about producers' output freeze plan - despite Iraq signalling willingness to talk.

Next week, markets could be dependent on the first US Presidential Debate, which is scheduled for Monday.

Traders are cheered as US Federal Reserve leaves rates unchanged handing them cheap cash to invest.

Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she expects another rate hike before the end of the year.

Gulf Keystone CEO Jón Ferrier says the restructuring programme will pave the way for relaunching the company.

The US Fed signalled it could increase rates before the year-end if the labour market improves.

Pound edges higher against euro and dollar after hitting a five-week low against the greenback.

Expectations that the US Federal Reserve will hold interest rates is buoying shares.

The BoJ will purchase long-term government bonds to keep 10-year bond yields at the current level of 0%.

Top flight stocks lift for second day in a row as investors look ahead to interest rate decisions in the US and Japan.

Dollar slides against the yen as investors remain jittery ahead of Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan's meetings.

Brent and WTI futures shed overnight gains as market continues to lose faith in producers' talks.

Analysts said that the general consensus was that the Fed would leave interest rates unchanged.

Ratings agency Moody's thinks it is unlikely all permissions granted to financial firms will be lost.

Oil futures see intraday recovery as silver jumps by over 2% on hedging calls.

Rising commodity prices lift heavyweight mining and oil stocks in the first session of the week.

Dollar slides as investors grow confident the Federal Reserve will not hike interest rates.

Markets were muted to BIS warning of a Chinese banking crisis.

Department of Justice's claims on the German lender lead to traders dumping banking stocks.

Dollar gains ground against the euro but uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve meeting lingers on.

Markets are now pricing in an extraordinarily slow pace of rate hikes by the US Fed – from their current 0.25-0.5% range, to about 0.75% by the end of 2017.

Lifting of force majeure at Libyan oil terminals and even more Nigerian output weighed on crude markets..

Stock markets in China and Hong Kong were closed due to the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Economists Roger Bootle and John Mills say imports exceeding exports amid a costly sterling is a leading cause of the UK's large current account deficit.

Mixed economic data keeps investors guessing on the strength of the UK economy after the vote to leave the EU.

Bank of England votes 9-0 to keep rates unchanged and expects UK economy to slow down less than forecast.

Nikkei 225 share average down by 1.2% at 16,414.73 points in early trading.