Here is what you need to know.
Samsung is ending the Galaxy Note 7. The electronics giant says it is ending the production of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 because of concerns for customer safety.
Alcoa started earnings season off with a miss. The company earned an adjusted $0.32 per share on revenue of $5.21 billion, missing the $0.34 and $5.33 billion that analysts were expecting.
The US 10-year yield is at its highest level since June. The US Treasury market is under pressure as traders return to work from the Columbus Day holiday. Early selling has yields across the curve up by as much as 5 basis points with the 10-year at 1.77%, its highest since June.
The British pound is sinking. Sterling trades lower by 0.8% at 1.2265 versus the dollar and is flirting with its lowest close in 31 years as worries of a “hard Brexit” persist. The currency hit a low of 1.1841 during Thursday’s flash crash.
A pound will get you less than a euro at most UK airports. The average exchange rate at 17 UK airport currency exchanges is now just 99 euro cents to the pound, the BBC said, citing a survey by the currency-exchange firm FairFX.
South Africa's finance minister will be charged with fraud. Pravin Gordhan will be charged with fraud based on "allegations that he illegally authorized an early retirement and established a illicit investigative unit when he headed the national tax agency almost a decade ago," Bloomberg reports. The South African rand is down 3.4% at 14.2755 per dollar.
Foreigners are pouring into Chinese bonds. "September saw record foreign investor inflows into China bonds totaling $US11.5 billion," according to ANZ. The bank says $6.2 billion worth of those bonds were China government bonds, which saw a seventh straight monthly inflow.
Economic sentiment in Germany improved. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany rose to 6.2 in October from 0.5 and is "a sign of a relatively robust economic activity in Germany," ZEW's president, Professor Achim Wambach, said. The euro is lower by 0.5% at 1.1085 against dollar.
The head of Russia's state oil company doesn't see the need to freeze production. Igor Sechin, the president and chairman of the Russian state oil company Rosneft, said his company would not cut or freeze oil production as part of any agreement with OPEC. The comments opposed a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin suggesting, "Russia is ready to join the joint measures to cap production and is calling for other oil exporters to join." West Texas Intermediate crude oil is down 0.8% at $50.92 a barrel.
Stock markets around the world are mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei (+1.0%) led in Asia and France's CAC (+0.2%) paces the gains in Europe. S&P 500 futures are down 5.00 points at 2,154.00.