Market hit by miners' woes 10.30am: European stock markets fell sharply in morning trading following the biggest drop in China's main index for a decade. By Mark Tran.

Wal-Mart invests in China The world's biggest retailer announces a takeover of a Chinese discount chain for an estimated $1bn (£500m) in China's booming retail market. By Mark Tran.

BSkyB furious at ITV inquiry MPs say the review of Sky's share buy-up in ITV is a key moment in UK broadcasting. By Owen Gibson. Viewpoint: don't adjust your set Full coverage

Post Office seeks stamp hike
The price of first and second class stamps could increase by 6p if Royal Mail succeeds in winning a major relaxation of regulatory controls.
TNT to put postmen on streets
Blog: Royal Mail chauvinism
More on postal service

Powergen cuts gas and electricity prices
11.30am: Firm is third big energy company to reduce bills for its residential customers. By Miles Brignall.
British Gas hints at further price cuts
Centrica reports £1.44bn profits
Gas price war hots up
More on the price war

David Abraham to head UKTV
Media: UKTV has appointed the former Discovery Europe head of networks, David Abraham, as its chief executive. By Leigh Holmwood.
Bidders eye Trinity Mirror regional titles
MediaGuardian.co.uk

GKN pins hoped on emerging economies
British engineering group reports strong profits and says the outlook for major markets is positive. By Mark Tran

Global bank's profits hit $3bn
Midday update: Standard Chartered today joined the buoyant bank reporting season by revealing record profits. By James Gard.
HBOS staff share £210m
Customers flood complaints hotline over bank charges
Step-by-step reclaim guide
The end of free banking?
Bumper bank profits in full

Everything's bigger in Texas
US private equity consortium in biggest deal in sector's history. By Terry Macalister.
3i joins auction for Foxtons
Unions rail against 'locusts'
More on private equity below

Pearson rethinks FT website
The millions of people posting their views on blogs and online communities has caused the Financial Times owner to rethink opening up the site to non-subscribers. By Richard Wray.
Scardino refuses to discuss future
What the analysts say

Sporting entrepreneur scores £929m in float
Sports World entrepreneur Mike Ashley today netted £929m after selling 43% of his business in a stock market flotation.
Strong debut expected for Sports Direct

Workers rack up £1bn in bogus expenses
Fancy a trip to New York but can't bring yourself to splash out? Or maybe you've been saddled with a hefty vet's bill? Don't worry, just stick it on expenses.

Gordon Brown will need his closest ally next door
Irwin Stelzer: Forget Darling and Straw, if the next prime minister wants a capable, talented chancellor, he should look no further than Balls.

Tesco 50-year bond sells out in two hours
· Pension funds clamour for ultralong corporate debt
· First issue of its kind could set benchmark for future

Live now, pay later culture Larry Elliott on the 'because I'm worth it' generation. Will we pay the price?

Enforcer tells of Wall Street scandal
Favouritism to hedge funds could destroy investor confidence, says the former investigator fired by the SEC.

Migrant workers 'boost UK economic growth'
Large flows help keep a lid on inflation, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study. By Angela Balakrishnan.

Falling energy prices force down inflation
Inflation could fall so rapidly in the coming months that it will be back below its 2% target by the late spring or early summer, Bank of England's monetary policy committee member Danny Blanchflower said last night.

McAlpine finds Slate is not clean
Construction group will suffer a £13m hit to profits after the discovery of serious accounting irregularities and possible fraud at its slate business. By Fiona Walsh.

Persimmon toasts 'exceptional year'
Housebuilder celebrates record 2006 profits with a 50% dividend hike for shareholders.
What the analysts say

Bands become brands
New roles emerge as record labels lose out in fierce market.
C4 and Emap in music TV talks
Spectrum in merger

EBRD blacklists German engineering company
First time a development bank has debarred a company for fraud or corruption committed in a project financed by another bank. By David Pallister.

Private equity: the human cost Burgeoning but secretive industry has been catapulted out of the shadows.

Deputy candidate backs private equity industry
Labour deputy leadership candidate Hazel Blears today came out as a supporter of the controversial private equity industry - despite a current union campaign against it.

Liberation capitalists are taking over
Nils Pratley: Modern private equity is seemingly eager to buy anything. Financial engineering, not the rescue of unloved corporate orphans, has become its hallmark.
Meet the men behind the millions

EU commissioner praises private equity firms
Charlie McCreevy, EU internal market commissioner, has delivered an extraordinary paean of praise for private equity companies as dynamic saviours of clapped-out firms - and of the European economy as a whole.
£1bn Countrywide bid fuels private equity row
Cartoon: Kipper Williams
TUC attacks private equity
Viewpoint: Living in a bubble
Blog: The case for the defence

Consumer spending keeps GDP firm
Economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year was unrevised at 0.8% from the third quarter, the fastest pace in over two years. By Ashley Seager.
Service growth drives investment boom
British productivity lagging

Bank voted 7-2 to freeze rates
Two members of the nine-strong monetary policy committee thought an increase to 5.5% was needed to keep inflation in check. By Larry Elliott.
Inflation predictions scaled back
Interactive: how the MPC voted
What the economists say

UK factory orders 'healthiest in 12 years'
CBI industry snapshot shows strong demand at home at abroad. By Larry Elliott.
What the economists say
Brown enjoys record £21.4bn public finance surplus
What the analysts say

Crash landings
On America: Andrew Clark tells a tale of two US airline bosses - one crying into his pretzels, the other sent to jail for a day - and a new cure for BlackBerry addiction.
US lender of choice for illegal immigrants
Rewards for failure out of control
More Andrew Clark columns

Australian dragon fired up by success
Interview: Multimillionaire investor Richard Farleigh, the Mr Nice of BBC hit show who made millions in hedge funds, wants to prove he can still kindle good ideas.

Global capitalism could destroy itself
Timothy Garton Ash: Our planet cannot long sustain the worldwide embrace of the manufacture of desires.
More from Comment is free

The ice man freezes his rivals
On Europe: In the first of his weekly columns, David Gow looks at 'swiping elephants' in telecoms, VW's indestructible Ferdinand Piech, and lobbyists getting nervous as the EC looks at their books.

Past reports of buy-to-let's death greatly exaggerated
Could this be the year that the predictions of doom and gloom finally come to pass? By Rupert Jones and Patrick Collinson.
'The property boom is over'
House price growth rate slows
England's most expensive streets
More economic dispatches