2) The pandemic leaves poor families £ 170 a month worse off The sharp drops in income this year for Britain’s poorest families far outweigh any savings from cuts to spending on going out or moving.

3) Whitehall fights the private sector to avert disaster: Leaked documents show ministers are scrambling to hire advisers as emergency aid for the Covid-19 central task force.

4) Head of Revolut appointed as UK’s 1st billionaire tech startup: Nikolai Sturonsky, co-founder and CEO of emerging banking company Revolut, has a net worth of over £ 1 billion.

5) Top black entrepreneurs in the UK on how to be successful: Stop seeing it as a way of life and start seeing it as a hard work to build a successful business, say the top black entrepreneurs in Britain.

What happened overnight

aChinese stock markets fell on Thursday but not as sharply as the Wall Street defeat overnight, while oil rebounded from its lows and US futures jumped, as the brighter economic outlook in Asia offset investor concerns about new coronavirus lockdowns in Europe.

The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan fell 1 percent. Japan’s Nikkei index fell 0.8 percent and in Hong Kong, Sydney, Shanghai and Seoul were less than 1.5 percent.

This is heavy but much less than the S&P 500 drop of 3.5 percent or the 4.2 percent drop of the German DAX which drove European stocks to their lowest level since late May.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures rose 1 percent, which traders attributed to increased volatility and less gloomy mood across Asia as the Chinese economy strengthens.

Central bank meetings and economic data were the main focus later on Thursday, with growing uncertainty over the US November 3 election leaving investors nervous.

The Bank of Japan is set to maintain a massive stimulus program and pledge to take more action if the economic fallout from the virus threatens to return to deflation.

Is coming today

Company: BT, Helios Tower, Endeavor, Royal Dutch Shell (Temporary); Evraz, Foxtons, Hilton Food, Lloyds, Smith & Nephew, Standard Chartered, WPP (Trading data)

Economics: Mortgage approvals and consumer credit (United kingdom)Bank of Japan announcement, unemployment (Japan)European Central Bank announcement, confidence (Euro-zone), GDP third quarter (we)