5.02pm BST

Much of the early gains made by stock markets evaporated by the close. Initially, the fact that some stability had returned to China’s currency after several days of turmoil after its surprise devaluation helped push global shares sharply higher.

But strong US retail sales revived talk of a rate rise in September by the Federal Reserve and took off some of the gloss. A strong dollar helped knock back oil prices and also undermined share prices. So the closing scores showed:

4.45pm BST

Oil is on the slide again

Partly due to a rise in the dollar in the expectation of a US rate rise next month, Brent crude has fallen 1.25% to $49.04 a barrel. On top of that, there were reports of stockpiling, fuelling fears once more of oversupply and weak demand. According to Reuters, market intelligence company Genscape reported an increase of more than 1.3m barrels at a key delivery point in Oklahoma.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS