Reality is beginning to bite in the FTSE 100 as some high-yielding stocks give up on generous dividends. But many British companies are still continuing to offer jaw-dropping payouts when what investors really crave is growth. The dividend culture of the FTSE 100 has long been an oddity. Its investors have received a far higher proportion of their total returns ...

With worries about a currency war growing and bond yields collapsing, investors have reached for their usual haven of gold. Only this time it has a friend (as my colleague Tim Culpan wrote): Bitcoin. Gold’s dollar price has risen 7 percent this month, Bitcoin’s by 18 percent. This apparent use of the two commodities as companion ports in a storm ...

Christine Lagarde is still to be confirmed as the European Central Bank’s next president, but work is already piling up on her desk. The euro zone is in danger of becoming the biggest collateral victim of the US-China trade war and Lagarde will need all her political skills to plot an escape route from the threat of recession. The euro ...