Markets: Asian bourses failed to extend the momentum seen in the US, as concerns of a liquidity squeeze in China continued to weigh on markets. (Financial Times)
Carney tears up the rule book on bank help: The BoE will now offer money for longer periods, accept a wider range of collateral, including "any asset of which we are capable of assessing the risks" and lower the cost of using the bank's facilities. The approach buries the policies of Carney's predecessor, Lord King, who was worried that the "moral hazard" of providing insurance to commercial banks would encourage them to take greater risks. (Financial Times)
Grangemouth future uncertain despite union climbdown: In a significant defeat, Unite said the union had accepted "warts and all" the Ineos demands in an attempt to save Scotland's most important industrial complex from closure. However, it remained unclear on Thursday night whether Jim Ratcliffe, chairman and main shareholder of Ineos, would drop the closure plan or reopen the neighbouring refinery, a joint venture with PetroChina, which also remains closed. (Financial Times)
China rejects Bo Xilai appeal: "The ruling on Friday by the Higher People's Court in the eastern province of Shandong is supposed to be the formal conclusion of the courtroom drama surrounding the murder of a British businessman by Mr. Bo's wife in November 2011. The court "rejected the appeal and upheld the first instance judgment of life imprisonment," the state-run Xinhua news agency said..." (WSJ)
China will introduce a new benchmark lending rate, one set by market participants in a reform that the central bank says is an important step towards liberalising interest rates. Under China's "loan prime rate" (LPR), nine of the country's biggest banks will every day report the lending rates they are offering to their best clients (presumably, major state-owned enterprises). (FastFT)
"Sinopec Group wants to sell half of its two biggest shale gas acreages in Canada to spread costs and accelerate their development, as the Chinese energy company focuses increasingly on return of investment, an executive said. A sale of an overseas asset would be a rare move for one of China's state-owned energy companies, which have spent hundreds of billions of dollars investing in hydrocarbon resources from North America to Australia to secure China's energy needs." (Reuters)
Twitter struck a cautious stance in setting a price range of between $17 and $20 a share for its IPO next month -- it will be valued at up to $13.9bn on a diluted basis, including restricted stock units and options. This is less than the $15bn which had been widely expected. (Financial Times) (WSJ)
DuPont will spin off its division making paint pigments, refrigerants and Teflon. Shareholders will be given complete ownership of the new company under the plan -- the business has been valued by analysts at Citi at $11.5bn, about one-fifth of DuPont's market capitalisation. (Financial Times)
Amazon payed for keeping up sales momentum, beating analyst expectations with a 24 per cent year-on-year rise in global revenue to $17.1bn in the quarter to the end of September, including a 31 per cent increase in sales in North America, and brushing off a net loss of $41m. (Financial Times)
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has a higher market capitalisation than it "deserves", its chief executive said. Tesla, which expects to sell just 21,000 cars this year, is worth about $22bn, roughly half the value of Ford and a third of the value of General Motors, which sold more than 9m vehicles last year. (Financial Times)
"Boeing has secured commitments for around 200 of its 737 Max aircraft, the upgraded variant of its best-selling short-haul planes, from multiple Chinese customers, said two sources familiar with the deals. The deals are worth a combined $20.7 billion at list prices and must be approved by the Chinese government..." (Reuters)
Aberdeen Asset Management is close to buying Scottish Widows Investment Partnership for £500m from Lloyds. Macquarie Group, Australia's largest investment bank, is apparently also in the running to buy SWIP, which has £145.9bn of assets under management. (Financial Times)
G4S replaces its UK chief executive Richard Morris after 10 years with the security company. The move means the UK division has had two chief executives in just over a year. (Financial Times)
Royal Bank of Scotland's "bad bank" division is selling its first portfolio of British commercial property assets -- which consists of a number of industrial distribution units with a guide price of £63m -- in the latest sign that the economic recovery is helping to unwind banks' previously troubled asset portfolios. (Financial Times)
Central Bank of Cyprus under scrutiny over specialists' fees in bail-in deal: The Cyprus attorney-general has ordered an investigation into events at the Central Bank of Cyprus following the leak of confidential documents concerning an unusual deal signed with restructuring specialists Alvarez & Marsal this year. (Financial Times)
"The Federal Communications Commission is considering softening the decades-old 25% foreign-ownership limit on TV and radio stations, a move that could open up new sources of investment capital at a time of frenzied consolidation in the television station sector." (WSJ)
Japanese inflation remained close to its highest level in five years in September, government data showed on Friday, as a weaker yen pushed up the cost of imported oil and gas. (Financial Times) Prices excluding energy and fresh food were unchanged from a year earlier, after sliding every month since December 2008. (Bloomberg)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
One day in the life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Financial Times)
Why the Bank of England must gamble on growth (FT Wolf)
UK: Labour to consider renationalising railways (Financial Times)
Even if not technically inaccurate, Beijing's GDP numbers mislead (WSJ)
BP ramps back up (WSJ)
Brazil congratulates itself for auction with one bidder (Financial Times)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -347.61 (-2.40%) at 14,139
Topix down -22.41 (-1.86%) at 1,181
Hang Seng down -121.89 (-0.53%) at 22,714
US markets
S&P 500 up +5.69 (+0.33%) at 1,752
DJIA up +95.88 (+0.62%) at 15,509
Nasdaq up +21.89 (+0.56%) at 3,929
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +5.90 (+0.46%) at 1,286
FTSE100 up +38.70 (+0.58%) at 6,713
CAC 40 up +15.03 (+0.35%) at 4,276
Dax up +60.77 (+0.68%) at 8,981
Currencies
€/$ 1.38 (1.38)
$/¥ 97.21 (97.27)
£/$ 1.62 (1.62)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.21 at 107.20
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.23 at 97.34
100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,350
Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 3.26
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.51%
UK 2.67%
Germany 1.77%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -0.14bps at 70.64bp
Markit iTraxx Europe +0.27bps at 86.5bp
Markit iTraxx Xover +4.02bps at 348.78bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
