A consortium of two private-equity firms and a real estate developer has reportedly agreed to pay $5.7bn (€4.2bn) to buy all of New Jersey-based Toys R Us, the second-biggest toy retailer in the US.

Conflicting signals on inflation kept stocks mixed in the United States today as investors abandoned riskier stocks and moved to safer blue-chip companies.

NERVOUS parents yesterday faced a terrifying choice about whether to take their children to school after the Washington sniper warned that youngsters were “not safe anywhere, at any time”.