However, the European Commission blocked the deal because it said it would have created a “near monopoly” in European financial derivatives.

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse said they would now end the deal, which was announced in February last year.

“This is a black day for Europe and its global competitiveness on financial markets,” said Deutsche Boerse chief executive Reto Francioni.

NYSE Euronext chairman Jan-Michiel Hessels said: “While we are disappointed and strongly disagree with the EU decision, which is based on a fundamentally different understanding of the derivatives market, it is now time to move on.”

NYSE said it would now resume a $550m (£347m) share buy-back programme. The European Commission said the planned tie-up would have controlled more than 90% of global trade in European financial derivatives.

“These markets are at the heart of the financial system and it is crucial for the whole European economy that they remain competitive,” said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

“We tried to find a solution, but the remedies offered fell far short of resolving the concerns.”

The economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.8%, the Commerce Department said. This was up from the 1.8% annual rate recorded in the previous quarter, although it was slightly lower than the 3% rate predicted by analysts.

However, the growth largely came from businesses stockpiling goods they had produced, rather than selling them.

Although the stockpiling lifted the figures, analysts believe businesses will not continue doing this, resulting in a lower growth figure for the current quarter.

The pace of consumer spending picked up to 2% from 1.7% in the previous quarter.

Much of this was attributed to an increase in sales of new cars, which rose by 14.8% over the quarter.

The Japanese tsunami last March disrupted production and delivery of models for major manufacturers, leaving customers waiting for pre-ordered cars.

Sinopec will get a one-third stake in five new shale projects, with the firms expecting to drill 125 wells this year.

China has been buying energy sources to feed its fast-growing economy, and wants to improve its ability to extract domestic shale deposits.

China has some of the biggest shale deposits in the world. Analysts said that the recent increase in demand for shale oil and gas meant that many companies were now looking to tie-ups to help them expand quickly.

Sinopec, meanwhile, is not alone in trying to access US shale deposits, and France’s Total announced a separate $2.3bn shale deal with Chesapeake Energy and EnerVest.

“It looks like the preferred transaction structure for a lot of these players, whether they are European or Asian, who are behind the curve on this technology,” said Mark Hanson of Morningstar.

Under the terms of the deal with Devon, Sinopec will pay $900m in cash, with the remainder of the investment being paid by the end of 2014.

The deal could be worth as much as $2.5bn when all the payments are made.

“This arrangement improves Devon’s capital efficiency by recovering our land and drilling costs to date and by significantly reducing our future capital commitments,” John Richels, Devon’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The firms were accused in 8 US states of working together to raise the price of screens for TVs and computers.

Despite the $553m payout they have continued to deny responsibility for the claims.

However New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, said the result was a victory for states.

“This price-fixing scheme manipulated the playing field for businesses that abide by the rules, and left consumers to pay artificially higher costs for televisions, computers and other electronics,” said Mr Schneiderman in a statement.

The firms involved in the settlement were Chi Mei Innolux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Epson, HannStar, Hitachi, Samsung and Sharp.

Samsung has agreed to pay $240m, Sharp $115.5m and Chimei Innolux $110m.

Formula 1 returns to the USA in 2012 for the first time since 2007 with the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

New Jersey will then add a second US race to the F1 calendar from 2013, on a 3.2-mile street circuit with views of the New York City skyline.

Lewis Hamilton won the last US Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500, in 2007. The event’s eight-year run there came to an end when F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone failed to agree new terms with the circuit’s owners.

At the 2005 US Grand Prix, 14 of the 20 drivers withdrew immediately before the race over tyre safety concerns. “I’m pleased New Jersey will play host to Formula 1, bringing one of the world’s most popular sports to our backyard,” said Christie.

The race will run on existing roads through Port Imperial and at the top of the Palisades in Weehawken and West New York.

He said “up to 100,000 people” were expected to attend across practice, qualifying and race day.

West New York attorney Joe DeMarco said: “It will provide a very challenging course. “They compare it to Spa in Belgium but it will have the feel of Monaco.”

This is higher than the 1% growth it reported in its second estimate, but the same as its first calculation for the three month period.

Consumer spending and exports were both stronger than previously estimated. Last week, the Federal Reserve unveiled a new plan to try to help the economy.

Under a scheme dubbed Operation Twist, the US central bank is selling about $400bn (£260bn) worth of bonds maturing within three years and buying longer-term debt.

The sluggish growth in the US economy has not been sufficient to reduce high levels of unemployment, with the jobless rate in August at 9.1%.

For the first six months of 2011 the US economy expanded by 0.9%, the lowest rate of growth in more than two years.

Zhou Xiaochuan said the People’s Bank of China (PBC) would “closely observe its implementation“, in a statement on the PBC website.

Separately, Chinese rating agency Dagong downgraded the US credit rating, according to Xinhua news agency.

Mr Zhou said China, which is the largest holder of US debt, hopes that the US takes responsible policy measures to handle its debt issues, while keeping the interests of the rest of the world in mind.

But he reaffirmed that China would continue to diversify its reserve assets to minimize the negative impact of fluctuations in the international financial markets on the Chinese economy.

Net income at the world’s biggest software maker jumped 23% to 23.15bn for the year. The figures, which beat forecasts, showed final quarter revenues reached a record high of $17.37bn, leading to profits of $5.87bn.

Sales rose 8% to $17.37 billion, a boosted chiefly by sales of Office, Xbox and server software behind Microsoft’s push into cloud computing.

Microsoft’s business division, which sells the Office suite of programs, including Outlook, SharePoint and Excel, was the company’s biggest seller in the quarter, increasing sales by 7% to $5.8bn.

The company’s online services unit, which runs the Bing search engine and MSN internet portal, increased sales by 16.5% to $662m, but saw losses increase to $728m as it struggles to fight competitor Google

Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to raise the debt limit, demanding Democrats first agree to spending cuts.

The US risks default if Congress does not authorize more borrowing by August. A downgrade would increase borrowing costs, slowing the economic recovery.

The US runs a $1.5tr (£916.8bn) deficit and is already about $14.3tr in debt. The country reached its debt ceiling last month, but the US treasury department has begun taking extraordinary measures to avoid breaching the limit.

Leaders of both parties agree to the need to trim the budget in the face of massive budget overruns, but Republicans have refused to allow tax increases, while Democrats have vowed to protect costly social programs.

Rio Tinto has been looking to expand its operations and increase its iron ore production in Australia by 50%.

Rio is the world’s second-biggest miner of iron ore. The miner said that it had signed deals with five aboriginal councils, giving it access to almost 70,000 square kilometres of land to explore for iron ore and other minerals.

Rio said the native communities stood to gain substantially from the deal.