The week saw $70bn of corporate takeovers in just one day, including LVMH’s planned $16.6bn takeover of Tiffany and Charles Schwab’s $26bn deal to combine with TD Ameritrade. Smaller deals included Swiss drugmaker Novartis’ $9.7bn purchase of biotech The Medicines Company; a Mitsubishi Group-led consortium agreed a €4.1bn takeover of Dutch utility Eneco; and eBay sold its online ticketing business StubHub for $4.1bn to Viagogo.

Global stocks generally weakened on news that the “phase one” trade deal between Washington and Beijing might not be signed until next year as Chinese negotiators pushed for a broader rollback of tariffs. This revived concerns about the outlook for global economic growth and boosted demand for government debt.

Global stocks rallied on confirmation of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn, but ended the week lower amid fears of a deepening economic slowdown. In contrast, bonds rallied sharply over the week.

Talks between the US and China continued, with both sides appearing keen to make progress ahead of the 1 March deadline, when the US is due to raise tariffs on Chinese imports into the country. President Donald Trump told reporters that it was more likely than not that a trade deal between the two countries would happen, and that the deadline for the talks could be extended. He also appeared to offer an olive branch to the Chinese telecoms company Huawei; his comments were seen to be laying the ground for a deal to halt the US-China trade war.

Talks between the US and China broke down without any progress, but the two sides will resume discussions next week ahead of a 1 March deadline, after which Washington could increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods in the event of no deal.

Global stocks gained, boosted by signs that Beijing and Washington may be making progress in breaking the impasse in their trade dispute. The IMF lowered its outlook for global growth in 2019, citing risks to the Chinese economy and Brexit.

Global stocks rallied amid optimism as the US and China commenced new trade talks.

After the worst year for US, UK and European stockmarkets since 2008, weak Chinese manufacturing data caused global stocks to start 2019 in a nervous frame of mind while global government bonds rallied sharply.

Global equities fell sharply, with US stocks leading the retreat amid fears of a US government shutdown pushed volatility to its highest level since February. Both US and global equities are on course for their worst year in a decade. US stocks, in particular, tumbled on Christmas Eve amid concerns that President Trump was considering sacking Fed chair Jay Powell, but recovered these losses on Boxing Day when major benchmarks posted their largest one-day rise in almost 10 years amid White House assurances that the Fed chair's job was safe.

Global equities were heartened by news that China will cut their tariff on imported cars from 40% to 15%, but rising concerns over the outlook for global growth following weak data from the eurozone and China weighed on markets as the week progressed.