What to watch for today
The new World Trade Center opens. One World Trade Center opens its doors (paywall) to employees of Condé Nast, the building’s principal tenant and publisher of magazines including Vogue and the New Yorker. The muted opening takes place nine years after construction began and 13 years after the original towers were destroyed.
Virgin Galactic investigators look to the tail. US aviation regulators are honing in on SpaceShipTwo’s “rotating tail boom,” which folds the aircraft in half to slow down its descent and may have been deployed too early. The test flight crash killed one pilot and badly injured the other.
Obama and Yellen have a sit-down. The US president and central bank chairwoman will meet to discuss “the long-term outlook for the American economy and the global recovery.”
Data and earnings to watch. AIG and Sprint will announce their quarterly results. Markit and the Institute for Supply Management both release their US purchasing managers’ indices for October, which will provide a glance at the health of the manufacturing sector.
Over the weekend
Ryanair defied Europe’s economic doldrums. The Irish budget airline said it expects fiscal year profits of $935 million to $960 million (paywall), up from the $774 million-$811 million range it predicted earlier. Better customer service and flights to bigger airports also contributed to a 4% rise in its first-half passenger numbers.
A Hong Kong banker was charged with murder. Briton Rurik Jutting, who until a week ago worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, appeared in court after police found the mutilated bodies of two young Indonesian women in his high-rise apartment.
Publicis found a consolation prize. The world’s third-largest advertising company, which tried unsuccessfully to merge with Omnicom earlier this year, agreed to pay $3.7 billion in cash for digital ad firm Sapient in an attempt to boost its US presence.
Argentina suspended Procter & Gamble from doing business in the country, accusing the world’s biggest consumer products company of inflating import prices to evade taxes. Argentine officials also notified their regulatory counterparts in the United States about the allegations; P&G has yet to comment.
A new military leader took control of Burkina Faso. Lt. Col. Isaac Zida emerged from a power struggle to take charge of an interim government after president Blaise Compaoré was forcibly removed after 27 years in power. Thousands of protesters gathered to denounce the coup, and the UN warned of potential sanctions.
A suicide bomber struck at the Pakistan-India border. A blast killed more than 50 people and injured 100 on the Pakistani side of the Wagah border crossing, which draws hundreds of visitors daily to watch elaborate flag-lowering ceremonies on both sides. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, as did another militant group.
China’s factories had a mixed month. HSBC/Markit’s final reading of its purchasing managers’ index of small- to medium-sized manufacturers reached a three-month high of 50.4 in October, from 50.2 in September. But the official PMI, which surveys larger state-owned industries, fell to a five-month low of 50.8, from 51.1 in September.
Pick your poison. Spirits giant Diageo is poised to trade ownership of Bushmills whiskey to Jose Cuervo in exchange for control of their joint venture, the fast-growing Don Julio tequila brand, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywall). Diageo failed to buy the whole of family-owned Jose Cuervo two years ago.
Quartz obsession interlude
Zach Seward on the the failure of One World Trade Center. “Born of politics and compromise, the building was never going to be an architectural masterpiece. The final product is a shell of the original vision to erect a soaring complex, known as the Vertical World Gardens, that reimagined New York’s financial district as the welcoming global capital it was always meant to be. Then came the revisions, the short-lived decision to call it the Freedom Tower, more changes, and delays upon further delays.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
It’s not Netanyahu who’s ”chickenshit.” The US is the coward for not standing up to Israel.
ADHD is not a disease. Some people just have a sluggish dopamine reward system that makes normal activities seem dull.
Don’t dismiss job candidates over a typo. People are worth more than the sum of their spelling mistakes.
The “Lucky Sperm Club” is going strong. Companies controlled by their founding families are more prevalent than ever.
There’s no such thing as a healthy microbiome. The trillions of microbes in your body defy easy categorization.
Surprising discoveries
RBS is teaching police how to spot financial crime. That’s the bank that just published 17 pages of regulatory issues (paywall).
Yes, feathers drop at the same speed as bowling balls. In a vacuum at least—thanks, NASA.
Macy’s store layout could use some work. Thirty percent of customers at its flagship store are visibly lost (paywall).
Fanged deer make a comeback. The Kashmir musk deer hadn’t been seen for decades, but don’t worry—they’re only two feet tall.
Vocal patterns change as feelings of depression worsen. Which is why a smartphone app could soon diagnose you.
Reminder: Get a 50% discount on our Next Billion conference in New York on Nov. 5 using the code QZBRIEF.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, mall maps, and fanged deer to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.