Headlines

German business confidence fell in October according to a closely-watched gauge of sentiment, as growing geopolitical tensions drove cross-sector pessimism about the year ahead, the Financial Times reported. Manufacturing businesses in particular were “markedly” less optimistic about the future. Their assessment of the current business climate fell to its lowest level since March 2017, and they reported incoming orders had extended their decline.

The European Central Bank is facing serious challenges: rising tensions between Brussels and Rome, doubts about monetary policy and worries about Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal, the Financial Times reported. A closely watched poll of purchasing managers published on Wednesday also showed that the region’s businesses are struggling to come to terms with increased global trade tensions — and that the export-led slowdown is beginning to affect the much larger services sector. Such problems have not changed the ECB’s mind since its last big meeting six weeks ago.

India’s second-oldest mutual fund has grown wary on non-banking financial companies after landmark defaults by IL&FS group fueled a cash crunch in the sector, Bloomberg News reported. Canara Robeco Asset Management is exercising caution on investments in short-term debt issued by NBFCs, as the fallout from Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. adds to strains caused by asset-liability mismatches. The company is a joint venture between Canara Bank and Netherlands-based asset manager Robeco.

China’s brokers and banks account for more than half the exposure to loans backed by company shares, a key source of risk as the country’s stock market keeps sliding, Bloomberg News reported. About 4.45 trillion yuan ($640 billion) of shares were pledged as collateral in China’s $5.4 trillion equity market as of Oct. 18, according to Chengdu-based research firm PY Standard. Banks and securities firms have extended more than half of that debt. If stock values continue falling, lenders may be forced to offload more shares, perpetuating a vicious spiral.

India’s tight money conditions and fears of a contagion following a debt crisis at a local lender dented demand and put a muzzle on animal spirits in the world’s fastest-growing major economy, Bloomberg News reported. Economic growth in the July-September quarter may have retreated from the 8 percent plus expansion in the three months ended June as consumption cooled, a slew of high-frequency data show.

For nearly a decade, Trafigura Group Chairman Claude Dauphin coveted a zinc deal with Europe’s top smelter. The commodities trader finally got across the threshold in 2015, months after its co-founder’s sudden death. Just a few years later, it’s become one of Trafigura’s biggest headaches, Bloomberg News reported. Nyrstar NV shares have plunged to record lows as falling zinc prices squeeze profit and drive worries about its huge pile of debt.

ScS Group said on Thursday it would stop selling its sofas and carpets at House of Fraser stores from January, saying the partnership had ceased to be beneficial since billionaire Mike Ashley bought the collapsed department store group, Reuters reported. Sports Direct, the British sportswear retailer controlled by Ashley, snapped up House of Fraser and its 58 stores from administrators for 90 million pounds ($116 million) in August.

Essar Steel India Ltd said its board and shareholders have offered to pay 543.89 billion rupees ($7.42 billion) to creditors to settle their claims, allowing the company to exit from a bankruptcy process, Reuters reported. The steelmaker, owned by the billionaire Ruia brothers, is one of a group of companies that are among India’s biggest debt defaulters that were pushed into the bankruptcy court last year after a central bank order that was aimed at clearing record bad loans at the country’s banks.

Manufacturers from the eurozone’s two largest economies painted a gloomy picture of the outlook for the sector on Wednesday, with closely-watched indicators sinking to more than two-year lows in both countries. In Germany, the decline in sentiment extended to the services sector, dragging the composite output purchasing managers’ index to a 41-month low of 52.7. The fall in the gauge was far sharper than analysts polled by Reuters had expected: a drop of just 0.2 points to 54.8 had been anticipated.

Nasdaq, the exchanges operator, reported a 4.1 per cent drop in net income for the third quarter, which included an $8m loss related to the default of Einar Aas, a private Norwegian trader whose bets in the European power market collapsed last month, the Financial Times reported. Nasdaq is the principal trading exchange where futures contracts tied to physical energy markets in the Nordic region are transacted. The loss contributed to an increase in Nasdaq’s overall operating expenses in the quarter to $354m from $341m a year ago.