Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
India still definitely not China: David picks up on some bullish charts and commentary from Goldman's Asia Pacific team, which notes that Indian investment demand has started to show signs of a pick up, with new approvals coming through in power and road projects.
El-Erian on Toyota's Abenomics gain: What the yen loses in value, Toyota earns in performance. That is the simple message form El-Erian who notes that Toyota's earnings' surge is in part confirmation of the view that, at least in the case of Japan, QE partially works by capturing existing demand that, otherwise, would be met by someone else.
NEWS
Markets: The FTSE All-World equity index was up 0.3 per cent as Europe's Stoxx 600 saw a gain of 0.5 per cent and after the FTSE Asia Pacific index rose 0.3 per cent. US index futures suggested the S&P 500 would advance 6 points to 1,769. The euro hit $1.3496 as the dollar displayed general weakness.
New York City elected its first Democrat mayor in 24 years. Bill de Blasio won by the largest margin of the vote since Ed Koch in 1985, sweeping past Republican Joe Lhota despite low turnout (Financial Times).
Chris Christie easily won reelection as governor of New Jersey. Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic national committee chairman, narrowly took the governorship of Virginia (Reuters).
Toyota Motor's strong profits on weak yen: 'The world's biggest car maker by volume said Wednesday it logged a net profit of ¥438.4 billion ($4.4 billion) in the three months ended September, up from ¥257.92 billion a year earlier, but slightly below a ¥451.69 billion average estimate by seven analysts...' (Wall Street Journal)
Tumbling prices for Gulf of Mexico oil are renewing calls to end the de facto US ban on crude exports. Varieties of Gulf crude have traded at record discounts to Brent of more than $10 a barrel in recent months. It has become easier to transport inland crude to the coast -- causing the market to ship huge volumes of Gulf crude to eastern Canada, and to increase rail shipments of shale oil from the interior (Financial Times).
Google, real-estate monster: 'The company signed the year's biggest leases in California's Silicon Valley and San Francisco and agreed to a fourfold jump of its space in Chicago, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc. A pending deal in Manhattan for about 360,000 square feet (33,000 square meters) would be the biggest in midtown south...' (Bloomberg).
Vestas has shown signs of a turnaround, despite a fall in revenue. 'The world's second-largest turbine maker lifted its free cash flow target from at least €200m to €500m-€700m. It also boosted its goal for its operating profit margin before special items from 1 to 2 per cent' (Financial Times)
Shuanghui hired banks for a Hong Kong IPO to help pay down debt after buying Smithfield Foods of the US. The sale could raise between $3bn and $6bn for the pork manufacturer, which would make it the largest offering in Hong Kong since 2010 (Financial Times).
Shine coming off super-prime London property? 'Houses and apartments valued at more than 15 million pounds ($24 million) showed almost no gain in the year through September, compared with rise of about 5 percent for properties from 1.8 million pounds to about 5 million pounds, broker Savills Plc said in a report today. Luxury residences outside central London rose by about 10 percent...' (Bloomberg)
A leading Japanese entrepreneur has cast doubt on the deregulatory zeal of Abenomics. Hiroshi Mikitani, president and chief executive of Japan's largest e-commerce company Rakuten, attacked government plans to restrict online sales of over-the-counter drugs. "If Mr Abe cannot judge on this, he cannot judge on anything," he said (Financial Times).
