Twitter shares taken off stock exchange after Elon Musk seals $44bn takeover – business live

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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.

Related: Elon Musk reportedly fires top Twitter executives as he takes over company

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.

Related: Amazon shares drop nearly 20% after company predicts weaker holiday sales

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.

Related: Apple weathers tech industry storm to top profit and revenue targets

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