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Democrats in Congress are scrambling to find a way to raise the US debt ceiling and avert what a chorus of executives and policymakers are warning would be a “catastrophic” default in less than three weeks. Republicans have repeatedly refused to support an increase in the country’s borrowing limit. On Tuesday the opposition party, led

Wall Street and European stock markets dropped sharply as fears of interest rate increases and stagflation upended a narrative of economic recovery and easy monetary policy that has supported asset prices for months. The blue-chip S&P 500 share index fell nearly 1.7 per cent while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.5 per cent. Europe’s Stoxx

The parties that hold Germany’s balance of power said they would start talks to decide who they want to join in government after the Social Democrats’ narrow election win over Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives. The Greens and the liberal Free Democrats have emerged as kingmakers after Sunday’s historic vote, which the SPD, led by Olaf

Germany’s two main parties are neck and neck after Sunday’s election, according to first exit polls from voting to determine who will succeed Angela Merkel as leader of Europe’s largest economy. An exit poll from public broadcaster ARD put both the left-of-centre Social Democrats and the centre-right CDU/CSU on 25 per cent, with the Greens

The world’s financial markets rarely sit glued to their screens waiting for the no-nonsense Norges Bank to pronounce its verdict on Norway’s monetary policy. This week was different. The 0.25 percentage point rise in its interest rate was the most visible expression yet of a turn in the monetary policy cycle that is spreading across

US prosecutors have reached an agreement with Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and daughter of the Chinese tech giant’s founder, to resolve fraud charges against her. The details of the agreement are set to be announced in a court hearing in Brooklyn at 1pm, Eastern time, according to a letter from Nicole

Deepening worries over Evergrande have ignited selling in a $428bn corner of the Asian debt market, underscoring how the crisis at the Chinese property developer is spreading to other assets as traders and investors brace for a crucial payment deadline on Thursday. Yields on US dollar-denominated bonds issued by riskier Asian borrowers have soared to

The US has vowed to support European countries hit by an energy supply crunch blamed by some officials and traders on Russia, and said it would “stand up” to suppliers accused of manipulating prices. Surging gas costs due to tight supply and low reserves have forced European governments to draw up plans to provide emergency

The International Energy Agency has called on Russia to send more gas to Europe to help alleviate the energy crisis, becoming the first major international body to address claims by traders and foreign officials that Moscow has restricted supplies. The Paris-based body said that while Russia was fulfilling its long-term contracts to European customers it

Shares in Chinese and Hong Kong property groups fell to their lowest levels in half a decade as an escalating liquidity crisis at developer Evergrande showed signs of spreading beyond the sector. Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, faces obligations of more than $300bn to creditors and other businesses and a crucial interest payment

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison defended his decision to renege on a submarine deal with the French government as acrimony intensified over Canberra’s decision to sign a new security pact with the US and UK. Morrison said he did “not regret the decision to put Australia’s national interest first” in comments that came just hours

France has recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra for consultations, in a diplomatic protest against a new security pact under which Australia will buy nuclear-powered submarines from the US and cancel its existing contract with Paris.  Jean-Yves Le Drian, French foreign minister, issued a statement on Friday night saying he had been told to

Advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration have begun debating whether to recommend authorising Pfizer’s application to offer widespread booster doses of its Covid-19 vaccine. Members of the regulator’s vaccine advisory committee are expected to vote at the end of Friday’s meeting on whether to endorse a third dose of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. While

Taiwan and Japan have hailed the potential for a new security pact between Australia, the UK and US to offset an increasingly assertive China, even as France reacted with fury to Canberra’s cancellation of a $90bn submarine programme to agree the deal. The US allies said the new AUKUS partnership, under which Canberra will procure

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani’s decision to flee the country last month scuppered a last-minute deal with the Taliban designed to keep Kabul out of the Islamists’ hands and negotiate a political transition, the US diplomat in charge of talks with the Taliban has said. In his first interview since the US exit from Afghanistan, Zalmay

US consumer prices rose at a more moderate pace in August, in a sign that inflationary pressures associated with the economic reopening from Covid-19 lockdowns are easing slightly while remaining near a 13-year high. The consumer price index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday rose 5.3 per cent in August from a

Beijing wants to break up Alipay, the 1bn plus-user superapp owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, and create a separate app for the company’s highly profitable loans business, in the most visible restructuring yet of the fintech giant. Chinese regulators have already ordered Ant to separate the back end of its two lending businesses, Huabei,

The failure by the US to bring Covid-19 cases under control is scrambling business expectations of a rapid economic revival, forcing companies to reset plans and revise forecasts as they also grapple with a new federal vaccine mandate.  Revenues have fallen at a quarter of US small businesses in each of the past three weeks

US president Joe Biden is to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Saturday by visiting all three US sites that were targeted by al-Qaeda. Biden called on Americans to mark a moment of silence beginning at 8.46am, the time the first of four hijacked planes ploughed into the North Tower of

Joe Biden has held his second call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since becoming US president in an effort to break an impasse in the relationship between the countries after two rounds of top-level meetings produced little progress. The White House said the two leaders had a “broad, strategic discussion” and that Biden had “underscored