Novartis‘s third-quarter core net income rose 4 percent at constant currencies, beating expectations, as the drugmaker said it had made “significant progress” in preparing its Alcon eyecare unit for a possible spinoff by the first half of 2019. Core net income rose to $3.02 billion, compared to the average analyst estimate of $2.93 billion in […]

The City of London must remain the top global financial centre after Brexit to avoid its financial services drifting to other parts of the world, Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said on Monday. Financial centres such as Luxembourg, Paris and Frankfurt are battling each other to attract banks, insurers and asset managers in Britain who […]

Russia’s appetite for bitcoin has been overblown by the media, the head of Russian bank VTB International told CNBC Tuesday. “There was some speculation that there was some buying coming from Russian investors, but more than these reports, as a bank, we have not seen much in terms of flows,” Riccardo Orcel said. It had […]

European markets were expected to open lower Tuesday morning, as investors continued to monitor the latest corporate earnings reports and kept a close eye on Spain’s constitutional crisis. Looking to the major bourses, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 is expected to open 12 points lower at 7,510, while the German DAX is set to start on […]

Traders are eagerly anticipating Thursday’s meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB), with some contemplating whether President Mario Draghi’s actions could radically reschedule when the central bank’s first rate hike could come. Back in July, Draghi said that discussions regarding a change in monetary policy stance will begin in the fall. In September, he then […]

A major advocate for Russian sanctions told CNBC that his U.S. visa issues should raise a red flag if they linger. Over the weekend, The Guardian reported that Russia was finally successful in pushing Interpol to place Bill Browder on its wanted list. Browder, a British citizen, explained that his authorization to travel to the […]

A far-left separatist party in Catalonia has called for “mass civil disobedience” after the Spanish central government sought to crush the region’s independence movement by triggering its so-called “nuclear option” over the weekend. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced plans to dissolve the Catalan parliament on Saturday, under a previously unused article of the country’s […]

The populism threat in Europe continues to worry investors despite a string of election results that suggested the movement was in decline, according to the CEO of Chantico Global. At the beginning of the year, possible far-right election victories in the Netherlands, France and Germany were perceived as the biggest threat to European politics. However, […]

The only way of dealing with British ISIS fighters in Syria “in almost every case” is to kill them, a British government minister told the BBC on Sunday. Rory Stewart, an international development minister and former diplomat, said converts to the terror group should expect to be killed because of the “serious danger” they posed […]

The British government must act urgently to secure a Brexit transition deal or risk losing jobs and investment in the country, business leaders representing millions of workers are due to warn. In a draft letter due to be sent to Brexit minister David Davis, Britain’s five leading business organizations said a deal to provide a […]