All the latest economic and financial news, including a downturn at Britain’s exporters, poor US factory orders and hefty job cuts at Michelin and Standard Chartered 5.37pm GMT Despite mixed economic news - including a downturn in UK exports, job cuts at Standard Chartered and Micheline - leading shares managed to end the day (mostly) in positive territory. Support came from Wall Street, where poor US factory order figures came into the “bad news is good” category, suggesting the Federal Reserve might think again about raising interest rates this year. More crucial data follows later in the week, with the non-farm payroll numbers due on Friday. Meanwhile the day’s closing scores showed: 5.08pm GMT Elsewhere there has been a meeting between EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Greek president Alexis Tsipras, and the mood from the EU side seems positive: Very constructive meeting between @tsipras_eu and @pierremoscovici on #greece, growth and reforms @EU_Commission pic.twitter.com/0RlRlWRDBm With @tsipras_eu @atsipras: positive momentum needs to be maintained, @EU_Commission supports reform process #Greece pic.twitter.com/Hf1SDaump0 Continue reading...