Before we close up for the day, here is a summary of the main developments:

• Oil dipped below the three-and-a-half year high of $78, reached on Thursday, as analysts suggested countries such as Kuwait and Iraq could step in to plug a potential fall in exports from Iran. Brent crude is currently down 0.2% at $77.34 a barrel.

• Ben Broadbent, deputy governor of the Bank of England, argued governor Mark Carney does not deserve the ‘unreliable boyfriend’ reputation. Markets might have expected a rate hike in May, but the Bank never promised one, Broadbent insisted.

• ZPG - owner of the property websites Zoopla and Prime Location, as well as Uswitch - is to be bought for £2.2bn by American private equity firm Silver Lake.

• Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays, was fined £642,430 by UK regulators for a breach of conduct in 2016, when he tried to unmask a whistleblower. In addition, the bank will claw back £500,000 of his 2016 bonus.

• In the markets, the pound is up 0.4% against the dollar at $1.3566, and roughly flat against the euro at €1.1338.

• European equities are subdued. The FTSE 100 is up 0.1% at 7,710. In the US, the Dow Jones is up 0.3% at 24,821. Apple shares are off 0.2% at $188.87, after hitting a record high on Thursday.

That’s all for today. Thank you for all your comments and please join us again on Monday.

Have a good weekend.

The opening bell has gone on Wall Street:

• Dow Jones: +0.03% at 24,748

• S&P 500: -0.02% at 2,722

• Nasdaq: -0.2% at 7,393

US tech giant is on the verge of a significant milestone, with a market value edging ever closer to the $1 trillion mark.

Shares hit a new all-time high of $190.04 on Thursday, and with a market value of $934bn, shares would have to rise a further 7% or so to hit the big one.

As Jasper Lawler from London Capital Group explains, that doesn’t look overly ambitious given the shares’ recent performance:

Apple has had a phenomenal week and a half, in which it has gained over 17%, putting it on track for a record breaking winning streak.

The rally, which started just prior to Apple reporting quarterly earnings and a $100 billion share buyback has also been propped up by comments from Warren Buffet as his firm Berkshire Hathaway brought up another 75 million shares in Apple.

Should Apple continue in the current form, we could soon be looking at the first listed firm to achieve a $1 trillion market cap.

Barclays said that it will claw back £500,000 of the bonus awarded to Jes Staley for 2016 - the year in which he tried to unmask a whistleblower.

John McFarlane, the bank’s chairman, said the board takes Barclay’s culture and integrity “extremely seriously”.

The group’s whistleblowing processes are fundamental to ensuring that individuals feel comfortable raising concerns and are encouraged to do so.

Accordingly, the board has now confirmed its decision of April 2017 and has made a very significant adjustment to Jes’s variable compensation on the recommendation of the board remuneration committee.

He also repeated the board’s support for Staley as chief executive:

The board is pleased that the FCA and PRA’s investigations have concluded and are now behind us. The board has reiterated its support for Jes, as have shareholders at last week’s annual general meeting.

As a business, we remain focused on executing our strategy and delivering greater returns for shareholders.”

Barclays’ boss Jes Staley has responded to the news that he has been fined £642,430 by regulators for attempting to discover the identity of a whistleblower.

He said:

I have consistently acknowledged that my personal involvement in this matter was inappropriate, and I have apologised for mistakes which I made.

I accept the conclusions of the board, the FCA, and the PRA, following their respective investigations, and the sanctions which they have each applied.

Staley has been given two weeks to pay the fine.

Barclays boss Jes Staley did not act with “due skill, care and diligence” when he tried to unmask a whistleblower in 2016, UK regulators declared as they announced the £642,430 fine.

The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority put out a joint statement to announce the penalty.

They said Staley’s fine was reduced by 30% because he agreed to settle at an early stage. Otherwise he would have been fined £917,800.

Mark Steward from the FCA that the chief executive should act in an exemplary way, but Staley failed.

Given the crucial role of the chief executive, the standard of due skill, care and diligence is more demanding than for other employees.

Mr Staley breached the standard of care required and expected of a chief executive in a way that risked undermining confidence in Barclays’ whistleblowing procedures.

Chief executives must act with a high degree of care and prudence at all times. Whistleblowers play a vital role in exposing poor practice and misconduct in the financial services sector. It is critical that individuals are able to speak up anonymously and without fear of retaliation if they want to raise concerns.”

Breaking news: UK regulators have fined Barclays chief executive Jes Staley £642,430 for a breach of conduct after he tried to uncover the identity of a whistleblower.

The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority announced last month that he would be fined but the precise sum had not been decided.

The regulators said the joint sum was equivalent to a fine from each authority equivalent to 10% of Staley’s “relevant annual income”.

The background to the fine is here:

The pound is faring better today after a cautious tone from Bank of England policymakers drove it to a five-month low against the dollar on Thursday.

It is up 0.2% against the dollar at $1.3549 (after falling as low as $1.3457 yesterday), and up 0.1% against the euro at €1.1351.

Ross McEwan, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has warned more branches could close in England and Wales as a result of transferring customers from its Williams & Glyn unit to competitors.

Around 120,000 of its small business customers will be moved by the end of the year to address competition concerns.

Asked on LBC radio about the possible scale of the closures, McEwan said:

I don’t know at this point. We’ll have to wait until the end of the year to see what actual footfall disappears when we move these customers out.

Shares in Zoopla-owner ZPG have jumped 30% on the news that it is to be bought for £2.2bn by US priuvate equity firm, Silver Lake.

ZPG is the top riser on the FTSE 250, with shares priced at 488p.

It has pushed the broader index of UK-focused shares up 0.5%, or 108 points, to 20,805.

Some big UK takeover news this morning, with the announcement that ZPG - owner of property website Zoopla and Prime Location and Uswitch - is to be bought for £2.2bn by the American private equity fund Silver Lake.

ZPG said it had agreed to a 490p per share cash offer, a premium of 31% to the company’s share price last night before the offer was made public.

Zoopla’s largest shareholder DMGT, the Daily Mail and General Trust, owns a 30% stake and has already given irrevocable undertakings to accept the deal.

Silver Lake needs to secure the backing equivalent to 75% of shares.

Alex Chesterman, ZPG’s founder and chief executive, said:

Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing and I am firmly of the belief that ZPG will benefit from their technology expertise and global network, which will help accelerate our growth.

Since its IPO in 2014, ZPG has evolved and diversified as we have made significant progress in becoming the platform of choice for consumers and partners engaged in property and household decisions.

The terms of the acquisition represent an attractive premium that recognises the quality of ZPG’s businesses and the strength of its future prospects, and allows shareholders to realise today in cash the potential future value of their holdings.

Broadbent says the job of the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee is to monitor the data and respond accordingly:

The economy moves in an unpredictable fashion. Our forecasts are helpful, they point to the general direction of things, but there will be unforeseeable events and we have to be able to respond to those.

It is entirely the sensible thing to do to wait to see whether we’re right that the economy will bounce back a bit from here. For me, the decision [to leave rates on hold at 0.5%] was straight forward.

He defends his boss, Mark Carney, who has taken the bulk of the criticism, depicted once again as the “unreliable boyfriend” for giving the market the mixed messages:

I don’t think that’s fair. You’re always responding to news and to suggest somehow we’d nailed our colours on [to May] I just don’t accept that’s what we said. We never said that.

Ben Broadbent, deputy governor of the Bank of England, has come under pressure this morning after the decision by the monetary policy committee on Thursday to leave interest rates on hold at 0.5%.

At one point markets were entirely convinced that the MPC would raise rates at the May meeting, after the governor, Mark Carney, and other committee members sent hints and signals in various speeches.

So, Broadbent is asked on the Today programme by Justin Webb, what is the point of guidance if the guidance is wrong?

Broadbent said the Bank’s policymakers never promised a May rate rise:

We’d given some guidance of what we expect, what might happen to the path of interest rates over the next two or three years, but that’s never been a promise that at particular point in time we’re going to raise them. We’re not in a position to do that.

Forward guidance has never been about a precise date of when interest rates are going up, we’ve never said that. Some rises in interest rates, very gradual, to a limited extent [over the next two or three years], that’s all we’ve said.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

Oil prices are down this morning on hopes that other oil-producing nations will step in to plug a potential fall in exports from Iran after President Trump pulled America out of the nuclear deal.

Brent crude is down 0.2% at $77.28 a barrel, after hitting $78 on Thursday - the highest since November 2014.

As the dust settles on Trump’s decision, analysts are now considering the prospect that other suppliers within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will step up to counter any potential disruption in Iran.

Kuwait and Iraq could step up, according to analysts at ANZ bank.

Here in the UK, investors and commentators are still digesting the Bank of England’s decision to leave interest rates on hold at 0.5% at Thursday’s meeting, after policymakers had previously signalled that a May hike was on the cards.

Ben Broadbent, a deputy governor at the Bank has just been interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and insisted he and his colleagues never “promised” to raise rates at a specific time.

More on that soon.