The addition of a mobile payments service to Apple’s next iPhone could help to boost sales of the larger-screen phones and claw back market share lost to mobiles running on Google’s Android platform.

Wall Street advanced sharply today as the Federal Reserve opened a two-day meeting expected to bring another interest rate cut to revitalise the US economy.

Stocks moved higher on Wall Street today as the Federal Reserve issued a widely expected interest rate rise and investors welcomed the prospect of a merger in the software industry.