Toyota to invest extra $8bn in North Carolina battery plant

The US has not received any reports that aid to Gaza has been diverted to Hamas, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

Blinken, while testifying to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of President Joe Biden’s $105bn supplemental funding request for Israel and Ukraine, said he could not promise “there’ll be 100 per cent delivery” of the aid to its intended recipients. “There will inevitably be some spillage,” he said, adding that “the overwhelming majority” has got to those who need it.

Up to 50 trucks a day have reached Gaza and he said the US is pushing to lift this to 100 this week. 

Dominic Cummings told the Covid inquiry that vulnerable groups were “appallingly neglected” when the government considered imposing lockdown measures. 

The prime minister’s former chief adviser was asked what considerations were made for economically deprived people, ethnic minority groups and domestic abuse victims. 

“I would say that that entire question was almost entirely appallingly neglected by the entire planning system”, Cummings said. 

He said Downing Street “is not configured” to function as the “nerve centre of a national crisis . . . in terms of the physical layout and the lack of proper rooms that you would have for a crisis centre, in terms of the personnel, in terms of the power”. 

US consumers were less optimistic about the outlook for the economy and their finances in October, as fears of an impending recession weakened confidence for the third consecutive month. 

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 102.6 this month, down from an upwardly revised reading of 104.3 in September.

Although the job market outlook held steady, consumers were more pessimistic about business conditions. 

Expectations for the next six months remained below the recession threshold of 80, as more Americans believe an economic downturn is likely. 

Conference Board chief economist Dana Peterson said consumers were more worried about inflation, war and conflicts, higher interest rates and the “political situation”.

The yen fell 1.25 per cent against the dollar on Tuesday, its biggest daily fall since April, as the Bank of Japan disappointed traders by tweaking its cap on bond yields but not abandoning it entirely.

The yen touched ¥151 after US markets opened, its weakest since October 2022. On Tuesday the Bank of Japan said the 1 per cent cap on 10-year government bonds would become a “reference point” rather than a hard cap.

The BoJ maintained its policy rate at minus 0.1 per cent and revised its inflation forecast to 2.8 per cent for 2024, up from 1.9 per cent.

The yen’s fall “is the market telling you that . . . the Bank of Japan is behind the curve,” said Ella Hoxha of Newton Investment Management.

US stocks dipped in early trade, eating into gains from the previous session, as investors looked ahead to tomorrow’s monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent early on, with energy stocks the hardest hit. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6 per cent, with all of the so-called magnificent seven Big Tech stocks in negative territory. Both indices rose on Monday.

The moves come as Fed officials prepare for Wednesday’s policy announcement. Markets expect rates to remain unchanged between 5.25 per cent and 5.5 per cent — a 22-year high.

US home prices rose for the seventh consecutive month in August, as scarce housing inventory supported demand despite high mortgage rates. 

On average across the 20 cities surveyed, prices rose 2.2 per cent year on year in August, according to the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller index. This was above analysts’ expectations of a 1.6 per cent rise, and above July’s upwardly revised figure of 0.2 per cent.

Prices rose in 13 of the 20 cities, with seven recording their largest ever price growth.

“The year’s increase in mortgage rates has surely suppressed housing demand, but after years of very low rates, it seems to have suppressed supply even more,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said it was necessary to seize the last diplomatic opportunities to stop the war in Gaza before the situation got out of control.

“We are witnessing a gradual increase in the expansion and escalation of conflict in the region,” he said while meeting the Qatari emir in Doha on Tuesday. “Resistance groups would not remain silent in the face of the Zionist crimes with US full support. They wouldn’t wait for anyone’s advice.”

Amir-Abdollahian is expected to travel to Ankara on Wednesday. Previously, Iran said it was ready to work with Qatar and Turkey to mediate the release of civilians held hostage by Hamas.

The Covid inquiry has been shown a diary entry from August 2020, in which Britain’s former chief scientific adviser noted a “bonkers set of exchanges” with Boris Johnson, who had appeared “obsessed with older people accepting their fate” during the pandemic.

Sir Patrick Vallance wrote that the former prime minister was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going. Quite bonkers set of exchanges”.

In December 2020, Sir Patrick wrote another entry:

He says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just Nature’s way of dealing with old people — and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them. A lot of moderate people think it is a bit too much.’

Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to former prime minister Boris Johnson, sent messages to former head of communications Lee Cain complaining Johnson had gone “back to Jaws mode wank” and was “saying stupid shit.”

The reference is to Johnson’s remarks in 2007 that the hero of the movie Jaws was the mayor who kept his seaside town open in the face of shark attacks.

Cain told the Covid inquiry that on March 19, 2020, Cummings, who was in a meeting with Johnson, sent him a WhatsApp:

Get in here he’s melting down. Rishi saying bond markets may fund our debt etc. He’s back. Jaws mode wank.

I’ve literally said [the] same thing 10 fucking times and he still won’t absorb it. I’m exhausted just talking to him and stopping the trolley. I’ve had to sit here for two hours just to stop him saying stupid shit.

Cain responded: “I’m exhausted with him.”

The Covid pandemic was the “wrong crisis” for Boris Johnson’s “skillset”, his former head of communications has claimed. 

Lee Cain told the Covid inquiry Johnson was a “challenging character to work with” because he would “oscillate” and “take a decision from the last person in the room”.

He revealed that senior advisers had agreed a full national lockdown should be implemented more than a week before it was. 

Johnson announced the first national lockdown on 23 March 2020. Cain told the inquiry the former prime minister had met his most senior advisers on March 14:

The collective agreement in the room was that a full lockdown was the only strategy which could suppress the spread of Covid-19, save the NHS from collapse and ultimately buy the government more time.

UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has defended his position on Gaza after days of criticism from inside his party, insisting that a full ceasefire would only strengthen Hamas.

In a speech in London, Starmer repeated his call for a temporary humanitarian pause to allow people out of the enclave and let aid in, a position in line with both the US and UK governments.

The Labour leader said he understood why people wanted a ceasefire in response to the “horrifying” scenes of civilian suffering. But he said a permanent ceasefire at this stage would leave Hamas with the capability to carry out more attacks.

At least 13 front bench MPs have criticised the Starmer approach — and tested the party’s collective responsibility — by calling for a full ceasefire.

In WhatsApp messages sent in March 2020 and shown to the UK’s public inquiry into Covid on Tuesday, Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to former prime minister Boris Johnson, said there were “big problems coming” as the Cabinet Office was “terrifyingly shit”.

On March 12, 2020, Cummings wrote:

We got big problems coming. CABOFF [Cabinet Office] is terrifyingly shit, no plans, totally behind pace, me and Warners and Lee/Slacky are having to drive and direct. We must announce TODAY — not next week — ‘if feel ill with cold/flu stay home. Some CABOFF want delay cos (sic) haven’t done the work and don’t work weekends.

The inquiry is due to run until the summer of 2026.

Pfizer swung to a loss in the third quarter after a $5.6bn inventory write-off related to its Covid-19 antiviral and vaccine. 

The US drugmaker reported adjusted diluted loss per share of 17 cents, compared with $1.78 in the same period the year before. Analysts had expected a wider loss of 33 cents a share.

Total sales fell 41 per cent year-on-year to $13.2bn on reduced demand for Covid-19 products, slightly less than the consensus forecast for $13.4bn. Excluding Covid-19 products, revenue grew 10 per cent year-on-year. 

Earlier this month, Pfizer lowered its full year revenue forecast, partly due to the US government returning about $4.2bn of its Paxlovid Covid-19 treatment. 

Boris Johnson did not believe Covid was a “big deal” in March 2020, according to WhatsApp messages sent by Lee Cain, the former UK prime minister’s former communications chief. 

Cain told the Covid inquiry on Tuesday that Johnson “should have done more” in early 2020 as the global crisis started to unfold. 

“I don’t think there was any clarity of purpose, any really serious outline, plan to deal with Covid at that particular point,” he said. 

He admitted the government got its assessment of the virus “wrong” in early 2020, initially viewing the UK as “incredibly well prepared.”

The official public Covid inquiry is examining the government’s response to the pandemic, including the UK’s preparedness and senior decision-making.

Airlines: The antitrust trial against US carriers JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines begins. The US justice department, along with Washington DC and the states of New York and Massachusetts, has sued to block JetBlue’s proposed $3.8bn takeover of Spirit, arguing the deal would reduce competition in the commercial aviation industry. 

Other earnings: Caterpillar, Amgen and GE Healthcare report results before the market opens. Chesapeake Energy, Match Group and AMD report after Wall Street’s closing bell.

Economic data: Consumer confidence is expected to have declined in October, with the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index reading forecast to drop to 100 from 103 last month. Separately, home prices in 20 major US metropolitan areas are predicted to have increased by 0.7 per cent in August, moderating slightly from a 0.9 per cent rise in July.

Climate: Two days of climate talks among global diplomats concludes, a month out from the UN’s COP 28 conference that starts in late November in Dubai.

Rail companies are preparing to cancel their plans for the mass closure of ticket offices in England, after a public backlash against the proposals.

Industry executives said the plans would be cancelled later on Tuesday after the government pulled its backing.

Passenger watchdogs on Tuesday objected to the proposed closures. Transport Focus said there were “key issues that are critical to maintaining accessibility for all to the national network that remain unresolved.”

The Department for Transport declined to comment. 

Carlsberg’s new chief executive said Moscow had “stolen” its Russian subsidiary Baltika Breweries, a month after the Danish brewer said it had written off the business and terminated its license agreements. 

“We’re not going to enter into a transaction with the Russian government that somehow justifies them taking over our business,” Jacob Aarup-Andersen told journalists after his first trading update since becoming CEO. 

“There is no way around the fact that they have stolen our business in Russia and we are not going to help them make that look legitimate.”

The brewer said this month it had written off the value of the business after concluding it could “see no path to a negotiated solution for exiting Russia”.

Eurozone inflation has fallen more than economists expected after consumer prices rose 2.9 per cent in the year to October, the slowest increase since July 2021.

The deceleration in inflation from 4.3 per cent in the year to September reflected falling energy prices and a drop in food inflation, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics arm. Economists polled by Reuters had expected eurozone inflation of 3.1 per cent in October.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food and is closely watched by the European Central Bank as a gauge of underlying price pressures, also fell more than expected to 4.2 per cent, down from 4.5 per cent in the previous month.

The eurozone economy shrank slightly in the three months to September, undershooting economists’ expectations, after a contraction in Germany and Austria offset growth in Spain and France.

The downturn in the economies of the 20 countries that share the euro marked a reversal from upwardly revised growth of 0.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast zero growth for the third quarter.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, said eurozone output was 0.1 per cent higher than a year earlier. That contrasts with the rapid expansion of the US economy, which last week reported 4.9 per cent annualised third-quarter growth.

The number of corporate insolvencies in England and Wales reached its highest level since the global financial crisis in the second and third quarters, according to new official data reflecting the challenges facing businesses amid high borrowing costs and slowing demand.

The Insolvency Service said on Tuesday that between 1 July and 30 September there were 6,208 registered company insolvencies in England and Wales, up 10 per cent year on year and only marginally down from the previous quarter, when insolvencies were the most numerous since 2009.

The Insolvency Service noted:

The last two quarters saw the highest quarterly insolvency numbers since Q2 2009 and the highest numbers of creditors’ voluntary liquidation since the start of the series in 1960.

Italy’s economy stagnated in the three months to September, rebounding from the previous quarter but still undershooting economists’ expectations, as falling domestic demand offset a boost from international trade.

The Italian statistics agency said there was growth in industry but lower output from farming, adding: “From the demand side, there is a negative contribution by the domestic component (gross of change in inventories) and a positive one by the net export component.” 

The country’s zero growth in the third quarter marks a rebound from the previous quarter when gross domestic product fell 0.4 per cent. Economists had forecast third-quarter growth of 0.1 per cent in a Reuters poll.

Big share price moves in Europe today include UK oil giant BP, French transport company Thales and British aerospace company Rolls-Royce: 

• BP: Shares in the FTSE 100 resources company slipped 4.9 per cent after it reported a steep drop in profits in the third quarter. 

  

• Thales: Shares in the French transport and aerospace company fell 4.2 per cent in early trade after its third-quarter order intake came in at €3.8bn, below analyst expectations of €4.5bn.

• Rolls-Royce: The British aerospace company’s shares rose 4 per cent after analysts at Barclays raised their target price to 270p from 239p. 

Dutch inflation has fallen further into negative territory, after consumer prices declined 1 per cent in the year to October due to tumbling energy prices.

The fall in Dutch consumer prices was caused by a 40 per cent year-on-year drop in energy prices, including motor fuels. Core inflation, excluding energy and food prices, fell from 5.5 per cent in September to 5.1 per cent in October.

It is not the first time Dutch inflation has been negative — it was minus 0.3 per cent in September.

Hong Kong’s economy grew less than expected in the third quarter, as the Asian financial hub’s efforts to boost growth lose steam amid China’s slowdown and US interest rate hikes.

The Chinese territory on Tuesday reported year-on-year growth in gross domestic product for the period of 4.1 per cent — slower than the 5.2 per cent growth projected by a Reuters poll of economists — following a sluggish 1.5 per cent rise in the second quarter compared with the previous year.

Officials earlier revised down the territory’s annual growth forecast to between 4 and 5 per cent, from a previous prediction of 3.5 to 5.5 per cent.

The yen dropped past ¥150 to the dollar on Tuesday even after the Bank of Japan hinted that it would no longer cap 10-year government bond yields at 1 per cent.

Japan’s currency fell 0.8 per cent to ¥150.38 to the dollar after the BoJ said it would “further increase the flexibility in the conduct of yield curve control”. An upper limit of 1 per cent for 10-year bond yields would henceforth be only a “reference”, it said.

The yen’s decline suggested that the policy adjustment overnight had “disappointed expectations for a bigger shift”, said Lee Hardman at MUFG Bank.  

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond was steady at 0.95 per cent on Tuesday — its highest level in more than a decade.

European stocks inched higher in morning trade on Tuesday, shortly before the release of the eurozone’s latest inflation and gross domestic product figures.

The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2 per cent, France’s Cac 40 added 0.3 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1 per cent.

Figures out later this morning are expected to show the eurozone’s harmonised index of prices dropped from 4.3 per cent in September to 3.1 per cent in October. That would mark the slowest annual price growth in the region for more than two years.

Year on year GDP for the bloc is forecast to have slowed to 0.2 per cent in the third quarter from 0.5 per cent in the second.

BHP has approved a $5bn investment to expand a vast fertiliser mine in Canada, as the world’s largest mining company bets on future growth in the farming market.

Construction of the second stage of the Jansen mine in Saskatchewan will cost $4.9bn, taking total investment in the project to $15bn and doubling future production to 8.5mn tonnes a year of potash, a mineral rich in potassium, which is one of the three essential nutrients for crop growth.

Jansen, which will be one of the world’s largest fertiliser mines, is set to enter into first production near the end of 2026, diversifying BHP beyond copper, iron ore, nickel and steelmaking coal.

The Spanish government is considering taking a stake in Telefónica in response to a move by Saudi telecoms group STC to acquire 9.9 per cent of the company. 

After weeks of controversy over STC’s September move, the Spanish government holding company Sepi said it was monitoring the situation and “carrying out an internal exploratory analysis of a possible acquisition of a shareholding in Telefónica”.

STC has already acquired a 4.9 per cent stake in the company but needs government approval to increase that to 9.9 per cent by converting derivatives it has purchased into equity.

Some in government are uneasy about STC having a stake in a company involved in national security and cyber defence, said one senior official.

Online trading company IG Group announced on Tuesday it would cut 10 per cent of its global staff, some 300 people, in an attempt to achieve annual cost savings of £50mn.

After a pandemic-fuelled boom, FTSE 250-listed IG Group, which offers both investing and spread betting services, has grappled with lower trading volumes and cash-strapped consumers with less to use on the platform.

“We want to position IG Group as a lean fintech company and today’s decisive actions ensure a strong platform for future growth,” said Charlie Rozes, the group’s acting chief executive.

Turkey’s trade deficit narrowed in September to the lowest level in two years in an early indication of how the government’s attempt to reduce imports is bearing fruit. 

The trade gap nearly halved in September from the previous year to $5bn, bringing it to the lowest level since October 2021, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. The decline was led by a 15 per cent year on year fall in imports, with exports inching lower by 0.5 per cent. 

Turkey’s new economic management team has said that one of its top priorities is cooling red-hot consumer demand that had been elevating imports. The data released on Tuesday highlight how the new measures including interest rate and tax rises are beginning to take effect. 

BP reported underlying profits for the third quarter of $3.3bn as earnings more than halved from the same period last year.

The results, which missed market expectations of $4bn, are the first since chief executive Bernard Looney resigned in September over his failure to disclose past relationships with colleagues.

Interim chief executive Murray Auchincloss said oil and gas production was 3 per cent higher than last year and production costs 6 per cent lower.

But that strong performance could not compensate for lower prices for BP’s hydrocarbons and lower than expected results from its gas trading operations.

Despite the sharp drop in earnings BP continued with its share buyback programme, announcing plans to repurchase a further $1.5bn of shares.

BASF has said full-year sales and profits will come in at lower end of its forecast range, as the world’s biggest chemical group continues to suffer from falling demand for its products.

The German group said on Tuesday that third-quarter sales reached €15.7bn, down €6.2bn compared with the prior-year period, as prices slumped amid falling manufacturing output in Europe and China, and lower sales of consumer goods. 

It now expects full-year sales to reach the lower end of the previously guided range of €73bn to €76bn, while earnings before interest and taxes would be at the low end of €4bn to €4.4bn. 

“There are risks from a further decline in volumes and a stronger price reduction than expected,” said chief executive Martin Brudermüller.

Vodafone has announced the sale of its Spanish business to Zegona Communications for up to €5bn, as the telecoms group aims to improve its competitiveness and growth prospects.

The deal is made up of €4.1bn in cash and up to €0.9bn in the form of redeemable preference shares.

The UK telecoms investment fund had said the companies were in talks in September.

Margherita Della Valle, chief executive of Vodafone, said: “Following the recently announced transaction in the UK, Spain is the second of our larger markets in Europe where we are taking action to improve the Group’s competitiveness and growth prospects.”

Vodafone announced plans to merge its domestic business with CK Hutchison-owned Three UK in June.

US car worker strikes cost Stellantis €3bn in lost revenues, the Chrysler maker said on Tuesday, as it reported higher sales for the third quarter. 

Stellantis finance chief Natalie Knight said the six weeks of strikes over pay had also hit the group’s profitability by nearly €750mn, a smaller impact than seen at some US rivals, due to strong business in its other regions and as the company trimmed costs. The company has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers and Unifor unions.

Stellantis, which produces European brands such as Peugeot and Fiat and is also home to Jeep in the US, said revenues rose 7 per cent to €45.1bn in the third quarter, beating analyst expectations in a Reuters poll.

The French economy slowed sharply in the three months to September compared with the previous quarter, as a drop in exports and a drag from inventories offset a rebound in household spending.

The 0.1 per cent of quarter-on-quarter growth was in line with forecasts by economists polled by Reuters but showed a marked downturn from the 0.5 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

The French statistics agency said business investment rose 1 per cent while household spending rose 0.7 per cent. Government spending was up 0.4 per cent.

But trade made a negative contribution as exports fell 1.4 per cent and imports were down 0.5 per cent. Changes to inventories knocked 0.3 per cent off gross domestic product.

Chinese stocks declined on Tuesday, as official data dashed hopes for a nascent recovery in the country’s manufacturing sector.

China’s CSI 300 fell 0.6 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 1.8 per cent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 1.4 per cent, led by real estate, consumer goods and industrial stocks.

China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index came in at 49.5 for October, below the 50-point mark that separates contraction from expansion. Some economists had hoped that last month’s reading of 50.2 had signalled the start of a gradual rebound.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.4 per cent. Japan’s Topix added 1 per cent and the yen rose after the Bank of Japan eased its yield curve controls.

UK events: The cap limiting bankers’ bonuses to twice their base salary is lifted, enacting a policy of the government of former prime minister Liz Truss. Simon Thompson, Royal Mail chief executive, steps down. Bank of England executive director for payments Victoria Cleland gives a keynote speech at the Digital Innovation Summit in London.

European events: Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg attends the annual Nordic Council meeting. Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson hold a bilateral meeting. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen visits Serbia and Montenegro.

Economic indicators: Third-quarter economic growth and consumer price index data for EU countries is published. France issues third-quarter gross domestic product, CPI and consumer spending data. Germany and Switzerland announce retail sales figures.

Corporate results: German chemicals multinational BASF, Bilbao-based lender BBVA, global oil giant BP, Nordic carrier Finnair and Amsterdam-listed carmaking group Stellantis are among companies that release third-quarter earnings.

The Bank of Japan decided on Tuesday to allow yields on the 10-year Japanese government bond to rise above 1 per cent, revising its yield curve controls for the second time in three months.

In a statement, the BoJ said the 1 per cent control cap on 10-year JGB yields would be regarded as “a reference”, noting that strictly capping long-term interest rates could entail “large side effects”.

The BoJ kept its policy rate at minus 0.1 per cent but increased its inflation forecast, saying it expects 2.8 per cent core inflation in the 2024 fiscal year, instead of its previous forecast of 1.9 per cent.

Chinese stocks led Asian equities lower on Tuesday as disappointing economic data dented market optimism.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.6 per cent, China’s CSI 300 dropped 0.7 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.2 per cent.

China’s manufacturing sector slipped back into contraction territory in October, data showed on Tuesday, while its non-manufacturing sector also performed worse than expected.

Japan’s Topix added 0.2 per cent after a local media report that the country’s central bank was considering relaxing its yield curve control policy later in the day weakened the yen and sent bond yields higher.

China’s manufacturing activity contracted in October, an official gauge showed, adding to concerns over growth momentum in the world’s second-largest economy.

The country’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index was 49.5 this month, compared with 50.2 in September. A reading of 50 or over marks expansion against the previous month.

China’s economy has this year grappled with a disappointing rebound from the ending of Covid-19 policies, as well as a slowdown across its economically-critical real estate sector.

Tuesday’s data reverses a shift into expansion in September, which had followed five consecutive months of contraction.

Samsung Electronics expects the memory market to rebound next year, forecasting on Tuesday that artificial intelligence applications will drive chip demand despite a slowdown in the global economy.

“In 2024, while macroeconomic uncertainties are likely to persist, memory market conditions are expected to recover,” the world’s largest memory chipmaker said.

The upbeat outlook comes after the South Korean company reported third-quarter net profits of Won5.8tn ($4.3bn), a 38 per cent drop from a year earlier but much higher than the Won2.5tn forecast by analysts polled by Bloomberg.

The company’s operating loss from the semiconductor business narrowed to Won3.8tn in the July-September quarter. That compared to a Won4.4tn loss in the previous three month period.

Australia’s largest pension fund has said it will vote against the Brookfield-led takeover of energy company Origin after it said an offer of $11.9bn substantially undervalues the business. 

AustralianSuper owns a 13.7 per cent stake in Origin, having increased its holding in recent weeks. The fund has joined several other shareholders in arguing that the offer for Origin made last November is too low.

The value of Origin’s stake in UK business Octopus has partly fuelled the demand for a higher offer.

Toronto-based Brookfield teamed up with US investor EIG to take Origin private and break up the business. It requires 75 per cent of shareholders to approve the offer. 

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond rose close to 1 per cent on Tuesday, its highest level in more than a decade, as investors bet the Bank of Japan would further relax its controls on the bond market later in the day.

The 10-year JGB yield hit 0.957 per cent, the highest since June 2013, while the yen was down 0.4 per cent at 149.45 against the US dollar.

The market moves came after the Nikkei, the Japanese newspaper, reported that the BoJ was considering allowing the 10-year JGB yield to rise above its current cap of 1 per cent.

Treasury Wine Estates, the Australian producer behind Penfolds, has agreed to pay $900mn for Californian luxury brand Daou Vineyards. 

TWE has been investing in the US as part of a restructuring of its assets since China — previously the largest market for Australian wine — imposed punitive tariffs in 2020. 

A further earn-out of $100mn has been included as part of the deal to acquire what TWE said was the fastest growing luxury wine brand in the US over the past year. 

Shares in TWE were halted on Tuesday as part of a fundraising to finance the deal. 

Events: Many Asia-Pacific cities celebrate Halloween, but Seoul will be cautiously marking a year since a surge of revellers resulted in 151 deaths and more than 80 injuries. Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district has imposed a policy of no alcohol in the streets, amid fears of a similar crush. Anime Tokyo Station opens in the Japanese capital’s Ikebukuro district. The Association of Japanese Animations and the Tokyo metropolitan government earlier this year signed an agreement to open a landmark facility devoted to the Japanese visual art.

Central banks: The Bank of Japan will conclude its two-day policy meeting and release fresh quarterly growth and inflation forecasts, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand issues an activity report.

Economic indicators: Japan announces unemployment figures for September. China issues official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index data for October. South Korea releases industrial production and retail sales for September. The ANZ New Zealand business confidence index for October is available.

Corporate results: Foxconn Industrial Internet and Yum China are among companies reporting third-quarter data. Indian telco Bharti Airtel and Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, Denso, Japan Tobacco, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsui & Co announce second-quarter earnings.

SolarWinds, the IT company breached by Russian hackers as part of a sprawling espionage campaign in 2020, has been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC on Monday filed a complaint accusing the company and chief information security officer Timothy Brown of misleading investors by not disclosing “known risks” and not accurately representing its cyber security measures.

“We allege that, for years, SolarWinds and Brown ignored repeated red flags about SolarWinds’ cyber risks, which were well known throughout the company and led one of Brown’s subordinates to conclude: ‘We’re so far from being a security minded company’,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in a statement.

S&P has upgraded Ford to investment-grade territory, citing the carmaker’s improving margins and expectations that its cost reduction programme would “more than offset higher labour-related costs”.

In a Monday update, the rating agency moved Ford up to triple-B minus from double-B plus.

Ford reached a tentative agreement last week with the United Auto Workers union that would increase member wages by 25 per cent over four years, following a historic 40-day strike against the traditional Big Three domestic car manufacturers.

S&P’s move comes after Fitch raised the company to investment grade status in September.

Moody’s lifted the company to the highest notch of junk territory in July.

A top Bank of Canada official has said that the central bank’s monetary policy setting body has not yet discussed when to start cutting interest rates.

Once the bank is confident that inflation is coming down and remains at those levels, “we would start thinking about lowering interest rates, but we’re just not there yet,” senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers told the country’s House of Commons on Monday.

The BoC’s “governing council has not started talking about when we’ll reduce interest rates”, she said.

The bank held its key interest rate at 5 per cent last week because officials want to give monetary policy time to cool the economy and relieve price pressures, BoC governor Tiff Macklem told lawmakers.

Wall Street stocks closed higher and oil prices dropped at the start of a week of closely watched economic data, with the upcoming Federal Reserve rate decision front and centre.

The benchmark S&P 500 closed 1.2 per cent higher for the gauge’s biggest one-day gain since late August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also gained 1.2 per cent.

In government debt markets, Treasury yields also edged up — signalling a drop in prices. Brent crude oil fell roughly 3 per cent to remain below $90 a barrel.

Markets are currently pricing in the likelihood that the Fed will keep rates unchanged in a range of 5.25-5.5 per cent when it announces its policy decision on Wednesday.