GOOD MORNING QUARTZ READERS!
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR TODAY:
Euro Face-Off: Merkel, beware Greeks bearing signs—or worse. The German Chancellor is in Athens Tuesday for a state visit. She will express solidarity with economically suffering Greece, but no major news is expected. Citizens are expected to meet her with widespread protest. They hold Merkel responsible for austerity policies imposed by Germany and other European countries as part of the Greek financial rescue. You can expect the 7,000 police on the streets to keep busy.
Crisis watchers, take note: European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi delivers a speech in the afternoon.
The US quarterly earnings season kicks off, with analysts predicting a 2.6% drop in profits from a year earlier for S&P 500 companies. Big aluminum maker Alcoa unofficially opens the season shortly after 4 p.m. ET, but recent history suggests its results aren’t strongly predictive for the rest of the S&P 500 US equity index.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
The IMF downgraded Australia’s prospects for growth. Lucky for Australia, it shouldn’t impact employment much.
The World Bank did the same for China. So, not a great day for Asian economies. But Chinese stocks rose in morning trading there. As the China slowdown news increases, traders place bigger bets that the Beijing government is about to unleash a new, massive round of crisis-busting economic stimulus spending. What Beijing may spend this next potential trove of newly-minted money on remains a mystery. China probably does not need any more city airports - thanks to high speed rail – or ghost towns.
Chinese firm Huawei called US criticism “China-bashing.” After a US congressional investigation warned of national security threats from the Chinese telecom equipment giant, the firm unequivocally denied the charges. Huawei’s anger is ironic. It requested the investigation in the first place to assuage such concerns. In its somewhat rambling statement, Huawei also compared itself to a Silicon Valley startup, despite having over 140,000 employees in more than 140 countries, and pointed out the US has only been a world economic power for a couple of hundred years.
Iraq has been shipping oil to Syria. The discovery of oil trade between Iraq and the embattled Assad regime in Syria will raise uncomfortable questions about the legacy of the US invasion in 2003, but confirms the regime’s increasing hardship finding critical supplies while it fights a civil war.
€500 billion Eurozone bailout opens for business, but not yet in business. A meeting of European finance ministers ended with the formal unveiling of the European Stability Mechanism, a firewall against further financial contagion. The country most expect will need to draw on those funds, Spain, is going to be fine, EU officials said. Why do you look so nervous?
Romney talked foreign policy at a military college. The Republican presidential contender’s take on world affairs was panned by the experts. Here’s a closer look at how Romney is underplaying the Obama administration’s trade successes.
HTC shares tumbled after profits dive. The Taiwanese smartphone maker’s third quarter net income tumbled 79%. Its shares fell 7% when the Taipei market opened. HTC’s slogan is ‘quietly brilliant.’ But this year it has mostly just been quiet, failing to release a blockbuster while Apple and Samsung hogged the limelight with the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3.
MATTERS OF DEBATE:
What does “middle class” mean, anyway? Chinese business mag Caixin takes on the evolving concept.
Related: Are the Baby Boomer’s America’s worst generation? One man confronts his father to figure out the Boomers’ economic legacy.
Advice for Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung: Stop catering to xenophobes. Rating Hong Kong’s new leader after his first 100 days.
SURPRISING DISCOVERIES:
An Austrian man will jump from a weather ballon 37 km in the air. If Felix Baumgartner’s attempt is successful, the attempt will set records for the highest and fastest free fall, and not boil his blood or explode his lungs.
Americans reproducing at record low rates. Cue sighs of relief from our global readers. 2011 saw the lowest US birthrates in history, with the recession getting the blame.
What a drought-stricken farm looks like. Not great.
Advancements in cloning and stem cell science win Nobel Prize. I’m still waiting on human-animal hybrids.
ALSO TODAY:
British industrial statistics and balance of trade. On this day in 2006, North Korea claimed to conduct its first successful underground nuclear test.
Our apologies for incorrectly implying in yesterday’s email that US equity markets were also closed for the Columbus Day holiday when just bond markets were closed.
Best wishes from Quartz for a productive day. Please send any news, queries, plans to sky-dive from great heights, and ideas for Beijing’s next round of stimulus spending to hi@qz.com.