Elon Musk says he has bought Twitter, reportedly wants to become interim chief executive – business live

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European stock markets have followed in Asia’s footsteps and opened lower. The FTSE 100 index in London has been dragged lower by NatWest, the top faller, down 7.4%.

UK’s FTSE 100 index down 66 points, or 0.9%, at 7,007

Germany’s Dax down 103 points, or 0.8%, at 13,106

France’s CAC down 37 points, or 0.6%, at 6,207

Italy’s FTSE MiB down 279 points, or 1.2%, at 22,312

In Asia, Hong Kong stocks fell to their lowest levels since 2009. The Hang Seng index tumbled more than 4%, dragged down by technology stocks. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.9%.

On the currency markets, the pound is trading 0.4% lower versus the dollar, at $1.1513. The euro has fallen through parity with the dollar, slipping 0.16% to $0.9946, a day after the European Central Bank hiked interest rates but appeared fairly dovish.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wants to lead Twitter as chief executive, at least in the interim, Bloomberg is reporting.

Elon Musk plans to assume the role of chief executive at the social media group after completing his $44bn acquisition, on top of leading the electric carmaker Tesla and the spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX.

Musk intends to replace Parag Agrawal, who was fired along with other major executives upon completion of the takeover, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter said. The billionaire is expected to remain CEO in the interim but may eventually cede the role in the longer term. Twitter declined to comment.

Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone thanked the three executives for their contribution to the company. There’s been no word so far from Jack Dorsey, the better-known founder who stepped down as chief executive last year to focus on cryptocurrencies.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the world economy and the financial markets.

After months of legal back-and-forth, Elon Musk tweeted “the bird is freed” as he appears to have completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and firing several of the top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal.

NatWest has reported flat quarterly profits of ?1.1bn this morning as the economic outlook worsened. It is the last of Britain’s ‘big four’ banks to announce results this week: Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC all reported strong profits alongside higher bad loan charges.

The pretax profit for the three months to September was slightly less than the ?1.2bn forecast by analysts, and unchanged from last year.

The bank benefited from rising interest rates which pushed up income, but set aside an extra ?247m to cover bad debts in light of the worsening economic outlook.

Alison Rose, the chief executive, said:

At a time of increased economic uncertainty, we are acutely aware of the challenges that people, families and businesses are facing up and down the country. Although we are not yet seeing signs of heightened financial distress, we are very conscious of the growing concerns of our customers and we are closely monitoring any changes to their finances or behaviours.

Asian shares slipped and the Japanese yen fell after the Bank of Japan stuck to ultra-low interest rates and maintained its dovish guidance, bucking the tightening trend among central banks around the world. But the BOJ revised its price forecasts higher through 2024 and warned that inflationary pressures were broadening. It said:

The labour market will continue to tighten and gradually strengthen wage pressure.

“An ugly week of Big Tech earnings is also coming to an end, having wiped out hopes of seeing earnings boost gains across the stock markets,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.

On Thursday, Facebook owner Meta plunged nearly 25%, dragging down the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which fell 1.9%. Amazon also lost in after hours trading after disappointing numbers and the shares are likely to fall when Wall Street opens later today.

Amazon shares dropped close to 20% in after-hours trading after the company said its all-important holiday shopping season would be smaller than expected. It made a profit of $2.9bn after two quarters of losing money. But it was Amazon’s guidance on the holiday quarter that worried investors.

Apple‘s quarterly earnings on Thursday revealed that the company is weathering the ongoing tech downturn better than its competitors, reporting revenue and profit that topped Wall Street targets.

The Agenda

7.45am BST: France inflation preliminary for October (forecast: 5.7%)

8am BST: Spain GDP flash for Q3 (forecast: 0.3%, previous: 1.5%)

8am BST: Spain inflation preliminary for October (forecast: 8%, previous: 8.9%)

9am BST: Germany GDP flash for Q3 (forecast: 0.8%; previous: 1.7%)

10am BST: Eurozone consumer confidence final for October (forecast: -27.6)

10am BST: Italy inflation for October (forecast 9.6%, previous: 8.9%)

1pm BST: Germany inflation preliminary for October (forecast: 10.1%, previous: 10%)

1.30pm BST: US Core PCE Price index for September (forecast: 5.2%, previous: 4.9%)

3pm BST: US Michigan Consumer sentiment final for October (forecast: 59.8)