Global investors remain overwhelmingly bullish on US and Chinese tech shares, while short positions on emerging equities are growing increasingly popular, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s latest monthly fund manager survey has shown.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said its potential bill for claims against its small business restructuring division will remain at £400m (€448m) after misconduct allegations against it were dismissed by Britain’s financial regulator.

The title of novelist Edna O’Brien’s 1965 book, August Is A Wicked Month, may carry more than a little relevance for nervous investors around the world this year.

As a ‘no deal’ looms ever larger in Theresa May’s autocratic utterances, many EU administrations are making pre-emptive moves ahead of the official Brexit negotiations.

Hopes are pinned on luring two more US investment banking giants to Ireland in the coming weeks, as global banks decide on new homes outside London following Brexit.

Global investors’ enthusiasm for European stocks continues to surge, the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of portfolio managers showed. The swing of funds into the region, and away from the US, was one of the largest since 1999.

Stock markets have taken a breather while bond yields rose, as traders assessed the likely speed of US rate hikes under Donald Trump’s White House and awaited clues to future policies from the choices for his new cabinet team.

A jump in orders for semiconductors ahead of the release of Apple’s newest iPhones helped Taiwan post the first gain in exports in a year and a half. The jump may boost growth in the trade-dependent economy.

Oil investors are buying contracts that will only pay out if crude rises well above $100 a barrel over the next four years, a clear sign some believe, that today’s bust is sowing the seeds of the next boom.

European equities are trailing US shares this year in performance and valuation while seeing outflows of $36bn (€31.7bn) and rising volatility as investors slash exposure to the region, spooked by the vote on UK membership of the EU.

The probability of the UK voting next month to exit the EU fell yesterday, as an opinion poll suggested the ‘remain’ side had increased its small lead.

Dell increased the amount of debt it will raise in the investment-grade bond market after the computer maker received over $80bn (€70.7bn) of orders from investors.

McDonald’s is marketing euro bonds, taking advantage of borrowing costs that have fallen to the lowest in a year because of the ECB’s expanding its stimulus programme.

Investors sought safety in low-risk government debt yesterday after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border, while European tourism-linked stocks fell after a US travel warning due to “increased terrorist threats”.

American companies are increasingly looking like some of the biggest beneficiaries of Mario Draghi’s unprecedented efforts to stimulate Europe’s economy.

The Government and State agencies have paid consultants €152m for advice on the banking crisis.

Irish life sciences investment firm Malin completed its initial series of asset purchases with two more investments, yesterday, and confirmed that director and former Elan boss Kelly Martin would take over as chief executive.

Irish life sciences investment firm Malin will appoint director and former Elan chief Kelly Martin as its chief executive as part of a reshuffle of its management team, two sources close to the company said yesterday.

Do you know what vanity capital is? It’s an industry based on selling us things that we don’t need, but which make us feel better — and its worth €3.4 trillion says Suzanne Harrington

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has confirmed that the estimated tax paid by companies operating out of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), in Dublin, totalled over €950 million in 2013.

Netflix has been a Wall Street favourite throughout the year, with the company’s shares more than doubling since the start of 2015 to hold the title of top performing stock in the S&P 500. The firm reported earnings on Wednesday night.

China’s tumbling stock market showed signs of seizing up yesterday, as companies scrambled to escape the rout by having their shares suspended, and indexes plunged after the securities regulator warned of “panic sentiment” gripping investors.

Shares in British bookmaker Ladbrokes jumped 20%, at one point yesterday, on news of its merger talks with Gala Coral, designed to create a $5 billion (€4.5bn) giant with the capacity to advance in the online gambling market.

The surging value of the US dollar may be posing the biggest threat to corporate earnings since the 2008 financial crisis, impacting results at most US-based multinationals. Some on Wall St are even talking about an earnings recession.

It cost the State almost €6,000 to put the Taoiseach and his party up in Davos for only two nights last month.

The European Central Bank’s pending stimulus measures for the eurozone economy are expected to see international investors lump on European stocks this year.

US companies are forecast to cross the Atlantic to raise funds in euro at the fastest pace in at least eight years as borrowing costs in Europe fall below dollar rates by the most in a decade.

Apple is debuting €2.8bn of bonds as the iPhone maker seeks to fund another round of shareholder rewards without using overseas cash that would be subject to US repatriation taxes.

A British banker has appeared in court in connection with the gruesome murders of two women in Hong Kong.

In an ideal, almost impossibly functional world, it might have been best if all Irish banks had passed the ECB post-crisis health check.

One of Ireland’s leading banks has moved to reassure its 1.3 million customers after it failed a major European health check.

KKR and Colony Capital are the most likely investors in Permanent TSB when it raises capital following the results of the stress tests, according to a source.

Permanent TSB Group Holdings, Ireland’s smallest state-owned bank, failed European Central Bank stress tests under the adverse scenario being assessed by regulators, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The ECB has agreed on the legal framework for its covered-bond programme, bringing it a step closer to asset purchases designed to help boost inflation.

It is believed that the Irish banks have concluded their meetings with the ECB to discuss the comprehensive assessment of the banking system.

Euro-area bond yields near record lows are leading governments to be complacent, according to Standard and Poor’s head of sovereign ratings Moritz Kraemer.

The European arm of an international property investment firm has agreed a new £225m (€285m) credit facility with a syndicate of three major banks.

From Michael Jackson to the Beatles, Martin Nolan has handled the world’s biggest celebrity auctions. Not bad for a man from Athlone who began his American dream working as a hotel bell man when he won a lottery visa to the states.

The amount of international investors who feel the ECB will not undertake a round of quantitative easing to stimulate the eurozone economy, until next year at the earliest, has shot up 10% in the past month.

FEW could have predicted that the latest entrant to the mortgage market could have grown up from the success of cereal crops in Wexford.

Irish banks will have to undergo regular stress tests as part of the new European Banking Union, one of the region’s top regulators told a conference in Dublin.