British house prices fell a little less than expected in July but sales per real estate firm hit a record low and retail sales weakened again, reports showed on Tuesday, reinforcing evidence of a marked economic slowdown. However, economists still argue the Bank of England will not be in any hurry to cut interest rates

European stocks fell in early trade on Tuesday, snapping a two-session rally, with mining and energy shares retreating as metal prices tumbled and oil broke below $114 a barrel driven by the U.S. dollar's gains. UBS rose 3%, reversing early losses, as the stricken Swiss bank unveiled a plan to break up its business into

British inflation shot up in July to more than twice the central bank's 2% target as food prices rocketed, official data showed on Tuesday which will douse expectations of any near-term interest rate cuts. The Office for National Statistics said consumer prices were unchanged last month, which took the annual rate of inflation up 0.6%age

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Japan's largest bank, said it would bid $3 bln to buy the rest of UnionBanCal Corp a Californian bank it already owns two-thirds of, as it seeks growth beyond Japanese shores. Saddled with a tepid home market and unburdened by heavy subprime losses, Japan's large financial firms are increasingly looking overseas,

Google Inc said on Monday it has resolved an issue with its contacts system that caused many users of its Gmail service to have trouble accessing their online e-mail. The problems began at about 5 p.m. EDT and an announcement on the company's Gmail "Help Center" site said the issue is now resolved. Google said

Wachovia Corp increased its previously reported second-quarter loss to $9.11 bln to cover costs to settle a probe of auction-rate securities sales, and said it will cut more jobs as the housing market deteriorates. The fourth-largest U.S. bank is now reporting a loss of $4.31 per share, up from the $8.86 bln, or $4.20 a

JPMorgan Chase & Co incurred losses of about $1.5 bln for the quarter to date, as it continued to be hurt by wider credit spreads, lower levels of liquidity, as well as the disruption in the credit and mortgage markets, the U.S. investment bank said in a regulatory filing. The third-largest U.S. bank said trading

Swiss bank UBS AG will separate its business into three autonomous units after it identified weaknesses in its integrated one-bank strategy, it said, after posting a worse-than-expected second quarter loss of around $330 mln. The embattled group will separate its prized wealth management business from investment banking, acknowledging flaws in its much-vaunted one-bank strategy. UBS