British American Tobacco reached agreement to buy full control of Reynolds American with a sweetened $49.4bn (€46.3bn) offer, bringing a successful end to almost three months of bartering with the maker of Camel cigarettes.

Global investors’ equity holdings rose to six-month highs in December on bets that US president-elect Donald Trump’s promised fiscal splurge would spur higher growth and inflation, a Reuters monthly poll showed.

Bayer offered $62bn (€55.2bn) to buy Monsanto, deepening investor concern that it’s stretching its finances to become the world’s biggest seller of seeds and farm chemicals.

Standard Chartered would risk a staff exodus if it cut bonuses, chairman John Peace said yesterday, responding to investor anger over high pay when the bank’s shares have tumbled and there will be no final dividend for 2015.

BARCLAYS, Britain’s second-largest bank by assets, is eliminating about 3,000 jobs this year as second-quarter investment banking profit fell by more than 25%.