Kingfisher, the home improvement retailer behind the B&Q chain, may surprise the market with news of better-than-feared quarterly trading this week.

The view that builders, as opposed to builders' merchants, were a better play on the housing recovery boosted the likes of Taylor Wimpey as the wider market firmed up last night.

Private equity group Terra Firma was last night locked in talks with investors to secure the funds it needs to avoid losing control of its music label EMI this week.

Morrisons announced a dramatic slump in underlying sales growth for the first quarter of this year, blaming the slowdown on falling price inflation and weaker consumer spending.

Though President Obama is having some success persuading America that climate change is a real and present danger, he still has work to do with some US businessmen. CBS News has just unearthed this posting on Twitter from Don Blankenship, the chief executive of Massey Energy, one of America's biggest mining companies. "Believe me yet? Global warming is a hoax and a Ponzi scheme", says the enlightened Mr Blankenship.

Chief executive Vikram Pandit said yesterday that Citigroup has proved its doubters wrong and is now "positioned for growth".

Intel Corporation, the US maker of computer chips, surprised the market as it almost quadrupled profits to record its best ever first- quarter financial performance.

News of a rise in assets values lured the bulls into the hedge fund group Man, which claimed pole position on the FTSE 100 last night.

The US government's $32bn stake in the banking giant Citigroup is back on the block and will be sold into the market over the course of this year, the Treasury Department declared yesterday.

Q. A couple of years ago you helped with a large debt from O2 Ireland. As a result of your help, O2 Ireland stopped making demands for an old disputed mobile phone bill. But now my mother in County Cork has received a demand from debt collectors for €1,180.34 (£1,060), addressed to me. MR, London.

Earnings hopes supported Centrica as the FTSE 100, hit by another round of weakness in the mining sector, traded lower last night.