Intel (INTC) won a major legal battle on Thursday when the European Union’s top court ruled that EU antitrust regulators could not reinstate a €1.06bn (£883m/$1.14bn) fine against the company, marking the end of a nearly two-decade-long case.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) upheld a lower court's ruling, rejecting an appeal by the European Commission, which had fined Intel in 2009 for allegedly engaging in anticompetitive practices in the market for computer chips.

“The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal, thereby upholding the judgment of the General Court,” the ECJ said in its ruling.

The case dates back to accusations that US chipmaker Intel had offered rebates to major computer manufacturers — Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), NEC (6701.T), and Lenovo (0992.HK) — on the condition that they primarily purchased Intel's x86 central processing units (CPUs). Regulators argued that these rebates were intended to block competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a violation of EU antitrust rules.

UK private sector growth fell to its lowest in almost a year, according to S&P Global, the weakest pace since last November.

The flash UK PMI Composite Output Index, which measures activity across the private sector, was down to 51.7 this month, down from September’s 52.6.

Growth across both manufacturing and services weakened, the data revealed.

Companies said that clients were delaying decision-making, due to heightened economic uncertainty in October, ahead of chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first budget, and with conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East continuing.

There were also concerns among clients about near-term domestic economic growth prospects.

Business confidence weakened to the lowest since November last year, leading firms to cut headcounts for the first time this year.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said:

Barclays (BARC.L) posted a forecast-beating rise in profits in the third quarter, with income from its investment bank leading growth.

The bank reported a 23% increase in attributable profits, which is owed to shareholders, to nearly £1.6bn. This beat consensus forecasts of nearly £1.3bn, according to figures provided by the bank.

Meanwhile, profits before tax rose 18% year-on-year in the third quarter to £2.2bn ($2.8bn), also coming in ahead of estimates of £1.97bn.

The company reported a 14% decline in credit impairment charges to £374m, compared to the same period last year.

Barclays said it had delivered a further £300m in cost savings in the quarter, resulting in year-to-date savings of £700m, putting it on track to deliver around £1bn in efficiencies for the year. Barclays announced a structural overhaul of its business back in February, with the aim of cutting costs by £2bn.

C S Venkatakrishnan, group CEO of Barclays, said: "We continue to be focused on disciplined execution of our three year plan and are encouraged with progress to date. Whilst there is more work to do, the Group is on track to achieve its target of greater than 12% RoTE in 2026."

Barclays shares climbed more than 4% on Thursday morning, with the stock trading at around nine-year highs.

Striking Boeing (BA) workers have rejected a fresh offer of a 35% pay rise over four years.

According to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) union, 64% of its members voted against the deal.

It comes as more than 30,000 employees are on a strike, which started on 13 September.

The governor of the Bank of England (BoE) has said that UK inflation is cooling more rapidly than expected.

Speaking at an event organised by the Institute of International Finance on Wednesday in Washington DC, Andrew Bailey said:

Policymakers have gathered to discuss the state of the global economy. It comes as UK inflation hit a three-and-a-half year low of 1.7% in September, falling below the Bank’s 2% target.

Money markets now predict a 89% chance of a rate cut from 5% to 4.75% in November.

Stocks in Asia mostly retreated overnight after a third straight day of losses on Wall Street as its record-breaking rally continued to lose steam.

The Nikkei (^N225) rose 0.1% on the day in Tokyo as purchasing manager indexes showed worsening conditions in Japan for both manufacturing and services. The overall composite PMI compiled by au Jibun Bank fell to a two-year low.

Meanwhile the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 1.3% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) was 0.7% down by the end of the session.

Across the pond on Wall Street, all three main indexes finished lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 1% to 42,514.95, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.9% to 5,797.42 and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 1.6% to 18,276.65.

In the bond market, the yield of 10-year US Treasury notes rose to 4.243% from 4.231 late on Tuesday.