Seven days in the Square Mile

Germany’s deputy chancellor and the French trade minister declared that the EU’S TTIP trade deal with the US had “de facto failed”, and that talks should be called off. Transatlantic tensions were exacerbated by an EU ruling ordering Ireland to claw-back €13bn in back taxes from Apple. In her annual speech at the Jackson Hole banking symposium, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said the case for another US interest rate hike had strengthened. A move could come as early as this month, but markets think it unlikely given the presidential election and dovish central banks elsewhere. Government figures showed that the UK enjoyed a record number of foreign investment projects in the year to April. The Department for International Trade logged 2,213 inward investment projects, up 11% on the previous year. Consumer confidence surveys provided further evidence that the immediate fallout from Brexit may not be as bad as some analysts feared. Mondelez, the company behind Cadbury and Oreo, abandoned its $23bn attempt to buy rival Hershey’s; the deal would have made it the largest confectioner in the world. Softbank’s deal to buy UK tech champion ARM was waved through by shareholders. ITV dropped its bid to buy Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One; the latter’s shares fell 16% on the news. Deloitte posted record revenues of £3.1bn. Jaguar reported that its new F-pace SUV had become the fastestselling car in the firm’s 94-year history.