US economy shrinks 32.9%, biggest decline since 1940s – as it happened

• US GDP plunges at 32.9% annualised rate in second quarter, jobless claims rise for second week
• Global share sell-off picks up pace after Trump tweet about election delay
• Germany suffers biggest economic decline since records began in 1970
• Closing summary
• Introduction: Lloyds, Shell post big losses

3.07pm BST

Global stocks are a sea of red, after Donald Trump suggested that the US election in November should be postponed, and news of historic declines in US and German GDP in the second quarter. Another 1.43 million people filed for jobless claims in the US last week, the second weekly increase, and unemployment in the eurozone also went up.

Stocks were already having a bad day, even before the US president dropped the bombshell. Here is the tweet again:

With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???

2.39pm BST

On Wall Street, stocks are tumbling after Donald Trump suggested in a tweet that the November election should be delayed. The Dow Jones fell more than 300 points at the open to 26,215, a 1.2% drop, while the S&P 500 shed 35 points, or 1%, to 3,223 and the Nasdaq lost nearly 100 points, or 0.9%, to 10,446.