Asian stock markets closed higher on hopes for a Japanese fiscal stimulus but European markets were in the red after big banks were fined in the foreign exchange manipulation scandal.
Here are five things that matter for markets now:
- Five global banks were fined a total of $3.4 billion in a probe regarding manipulation of the foreign exchange markets. Citigroup (C), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC (HSBC), UBS (UBS) and JP Morgan (JPM) were fined for failing to prevent their traders from trying to manipulate foreign exchange markets. RBS and JP Morgan were also fined over attempts to rig currency benchmarks. JP Morgan said it improved its systems to avoid this happening again. Barclays (BCS) said it was not ready to settle in the probe. The Bank of England has fired its chief foreign exchange dealer, who had been suspended in March. The central bank said he was dismissed for breaching internal policies and that his dismissal had nothing to do with the improper activity in the currencies market that led to the commercial banks being fined by regulators.
- Eurozone factory output rebounded only partly in September, data from Eurostat shows. Production by factories, mines and utilities was up 0.6% in September from August, and 0.6% higher than in the same month in 2013. This was slightly lower than analyst expectations of a 0.7% increase.
- Hong Kong plans to scrap a daily limit for exchanging Chinese yuan on Monday, when a link between the Hong Kong stock exchange and the Shanghai stock exchange will come into force, boosting investment into Chinese shares. Currently, Hong Kong residents face a daily conversion limit of 20,000 yuan ($3,264).
- Apple (AAPL) faces a U.S. lawsuit in which a plaintiff accused the company of not warning her that if she switched to another smartphone, text messages from users of Apple equipment would not be delivered.
- Yahoo! (YHOO) is buying video ads group BrightRoll for $640 million in cash, as part of the group's strategy to stop losing market share in digital advertising. BrightRoll collects data on the web to try to help marketers quickly serve ads on the relevant pages.
