McVitie’s and Jaffa Cakes maker United Biscuits is to be swallowed up by Turkish food conglomerate Yildiz Holdings in a deal believed to be worth £2bn (€2.56bn), it was announced today.

Stocks in the US finished an uneasy session mixed today as investors grew nervous ahead of the second-quarter earnings season. Weakness in the technology sector dragged on the Nasdaq composite index.