What to watch for today
FIFA names corruption suspects. In an attempt to improve transparency, soccer’s embattled global governing body will publicly announce which of its officials are under internal investigation for corruption. The officials themselves were given a one-day heads-up.
Ferrari goes public. The supercar manufacturer will start selling a 10% stake on the New York Stock Exchange today, using the ticker RACE. Shares are priced at $52 a piece, which values the company at $893 million.
Brazil and Canada stay high and low, respectively. Canada’s central bankers are likely to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 0.5% as the economy reels from low oil prices. Their Brazilian counterparts will probably keep their much higher 14.25% rate unchanged, as well, in an attempt to bring down the country’s 9.5% inflation rate.
eBay publishes its first post-Paypal results. The firm’s like-for-like revenues are expected to decline slightly amid intense competition from the likes of Amazon and Walmart. After spinning off Paypal, eBay’s new leaders are faced with the daunting task of figuring out how to retool an e-commerce pioneer.
More earnings! Other companies opening their books include Credit Suisse, Coca Cola, Boeing, Amex, GM, and Texas Instruments.
It’s “Back to the Future” Day. Oct. 21, 2015 is the famous “destination time” in the classic time-travel movie trilogy, which envisioned the future as having wearable technology (check), drones (check), and hoverboards (check, sort of).
While you were sleeping
Yahoo disappointed its investors. The internet giant reported a third-quarter revenue of $1 billion, down from $1.9 billion a year earlier, and forecast fourth-quarter profits below expectations. CEO Marissa Mayer announced a search partnership with Google, but also said Yahoo’s spin-off of its Alibaba stock will be delayed.
Tesla faced a drop in safety confidence. Consumer Reports, a product testing and review magazine, removed the electric car maker’s Model S from its “reliable” category, after owners complained of quality issues. Tesla’s share price dropped as much as 11%.
Japan’s exports grew the slowest in over a year. The value of shipments rose by just 0.6% in September from a year earlier, well below an expected 3.8% increase. Exports to China declined by 3.5%, but demand in Europe and the US jumped; the results could encourage the central bank to introduce more stimulus measures later this month.
US regulators added more charges in a UN bribery scandal. Ng Lap Seng, a billionaire businessman from Macau charged with bribery, is now facing fresh charges of money laundering. An indictment from the Manhattan federal court also added bribery charges against Sheri Yan, who is accused of facilitating bribes between Chinese businessmen and a former UN ambassador.
Chipotle’s rapid growth came to an end. The billion-dollar burrito chain reported third-quarter same-store sales growth of 2.6% from a year earlier—far below the double-digit sales growth of previous quarters. Chipotle also reported a lower-than-expected profit due to higher costs; its share price fell by more than 7% in extended trading.
Quartz obsession interlude
Nikhil Sonnad on the secret to creating perfect—and unforgettable—passwords. “A pair of computational linguists at the University of Southern California have a possible answer to your easy-to-hack habits. They set out to automatically generate unique passwords that are both easy for humans to remember and very difficult for computers to crack. They found inspiration from, of all things, poetry.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Payday loan companies get a bad rap. Stricter regulations may do more harm than good.
Silicon Valley’s diversity gap isn’t just about race and gender. Age bias is widespread and overlooked.
We need a new way to think about free will. If IQ measures intelligence, we also need FQ to measure our freedom.
Note to the Fed: Don’t trust the Phillips curve. The inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment doesn’t apply right now.
Parents should let children fail. Kids’ happiness should not be valued above competence and autonomy.
Surprising discoveries
Facial-recognition can detect depression. Depressed people use different muscles to smile.
High-tech brooms are changing the sport of curling. But some top Canadian players refuse to use them.
Borders bookstores still exist in Malaysia. The US chain went bankrupt in 2011 but its foreign franchisees live on.
Now, Indonesia’s palm oil fires emit more greenhouse gases than the US. Those responsible are still rarely punished.
Australians are petitioning to call their currency “dollarydoos.” The word was coined in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, classic curling brooms, and spare dollarydoos to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day.