Soaring food and fuel bills pushed up Britain's inflation rate by its biggest amount in nearly six years, further denting expectations of interest rate cuts despite a slowing economy.

Societe Generale, the French bank hit by the world's worst rogue trader scandal, reported a 23.4 percent fall in first quarter net profit although earnings came in above the average market forecast.

UK housing sentiment slumped to record lows in April, underscoring continued weakness in the sector and piling pressure on the Bank of England at a time when snowballing inflation could force it to keep interest rates on hold.  

HSBC writes down $3.2 billion in bad debt and says 5% of US mortages are 2-months or more overdue. But profit, shares rise.

BT Group is in talks to sell its British data centers to the U.S. computer firm Hewlett-Packard
for 1.5 billion pounds ($2.93 billion), the Sunday Times reported.

Shares in Fresnillo fell as much as 10 percent after the world's biggest silver producer raised 905 million pounds ($1.77 billion) in a London flotation that was priced at the bottom of the expected range.

Two billion dollars was pulled out of UBS's wealth management division in the first quarter. It's difficult to say how much of the loss stemmed from the subprime crisis, but smaller banks in Switzerland have been picking up business from the troubled market leader.

The Bank of England kept the interest rate unchanged at 5 percent on Thursday, caught between the threat of rising inflation and increasing evidence of a weakening economy.

Carphone Warehouse is to sell a 50 percent stake in its retail unit for 1.1 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) to consumer electronics retailer Best Buy and the two groups will launch a new company.

When Rene Obermann took over Deutsche Telekom at the end of 2006 he was tasked with the firm's struggling domestic operations. But his non-domestic challenges have been—and continue to be—plentiful.

UK interest rates are expected to remain on hold at 5 percent when the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee announces its decision Thursday, as fear of inflation prevents aggressive cuts that could boost Britain’s weakening economy, analysts told CNBC.com.

Investors are watching Russian beer venture BBH and struggling Anglo-Irish Bank, both of which report earnings Wednesday.

Nicolas Sarkozy promised the French people more money, faster growth and a break with the past. So how has he delivered?

The recent market volatility and subsequent rise in trading volumes means it should be party time for the stock exchanges. But as NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse prepare to report on first quarter earnings on Tuesday, the industry finds itself facing a number of problems and traders would be forgiven for selling in May and staying well away.

The financial sector fueled a rally in European shares on Friday, which scored their third weekly gain, after U.S. jobs data suggested the world's largest economy was proving more resilient than expected.