Harris calls on America to ‘turn the page’ on Trump

Good morning. In today’s news:

• Alphabet and Reddit shares rise

• Ukraine and Russia in talks

• Why boards should take a chance on youth

But with less than a week to go before the US election we turn to politics for our first story. Vice-president Kamala Harris pulled few punches last night as she urged Americans to “turn the page” on Donald Trump in her final major speech of the campaign watched by an estimated 75,000 people.

“America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind: more chaos, more division and policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else,” she said on The Ellipse in Washington DC, with the White House illuminated behind her. “I offer a different path, and I ask for your vote.”

In the biggest speech of her political career, Harris highlighted the risk her opponent posed to American democracy if elected. The event was at the location where, on January 6 2021, Trump urged his supporters “to fight like hell” hours before they stormed the Capitol.

But the speech was somewhat overshadowed by comments made by Joe Biden. Speaking on a Zoom video call to Latino campaigners, the president appeared to describe Trump supporters as “garbage”. The White House said Biden was responding to comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage”. Read more on Harris’s “closing argument”.

As we count down to the vote next Tuesday, campaigning continues today. Trump will hold rallies in the battleground states of North Carolina and Wisconsin. Harris will also be campaigning in those states, as well as Pennsylvania.

Here’s more of our election coverage:

• Backlash: James Politi reports from the Puerto Rican neighbourhood of Allentown, Pennsylvania where activists say Trump could lose a lot of votes following comments at Sunday’s rally in New York.

• Corporate taxes: Goldman Sachs estimates the difference between the candidates’ tax plans is a quarter of a trillion dollars. One expert describes the election as “a significant fiscal event”.

• Michigan: Patti Waldmeir reports from Kent County in Michigan where an influx of better-paid young professionals and blue-collar Latino voters has changed the electoral calculus in this “purple island” on the “red shores” of Lake Michigan.

• Opinion: Harris is correct that the republic is in danger but that message may not suffice to prevent a Trump victory, writes Edward Luce.

• Martin Wolf: Our chief economics commentator says a second Trump administration would be far worse than the first for the US and the world.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Results: Meta and Microsoft become the latest technology companies to report earnings. Other companies reporting include Eli Lilly, AbbVie, Kraft Heinz, Starbucks, Caterpillar, Coinbase and Robinhood.

• Economic data: The US government releases flash third-quarter GDP. ADP, the private sector payrolls processing company, releases its US employment report for October.

• UK Budget: Rachel Reeves, the UK chancellor, will deliver Labour’s first financial statement for 14 years following the party’s election win in July.

Five more top stories

1. Alphabet’s profit jumped 34 per cent in the third quarter as the parent company of search giant Google reported strong growth in its cloud business amid robust demand for computing and data services used to train and run generative artificial intelligence models. Read the full story.

• Reddit: The social media platform surprised Wall Street by turning a profit for the first time just months after going public, sending shares up 25 per cent to a record high.

2. Exclusive: Ukraine and Russia are in preliminary talks about halting strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter. They said Kyiv was seeking to resume Qatar-mediated negotiations that were derailed by this summer’s Kursk incursion. An agreement would mark the most significant de-escalation of the war since Russia invaded in 2022.

• North Korean troops: Kyiv is on high alert as it awaits Pyongyang’s possible entry into the war, which would mark the conflict’s first intervention by a foreign army.

3. UBS has reported net profit of $1.4bn for the third quarter, smashing expectations as the Swiss bank’s trading business benefited from increased market volatility and cost cutting. Investment bank revenue rose 22 per cent to $2.6bn, helped by strong performance from its global markets division while revenue at the global wealth management business rose slightly. Banking editor Ortenca Aliaj has more.

• More European results: Volkswagen stressed “the urgent need” to carry out significant plant closures and job cuts as it reported a 64 per cent drop in quarterly net profits.

• German government on brink of collapse: The VW job cuts and a stagnating economy have left Olaf Scholz’s coalition in disarray.

4. Investors’ “fear of missing out” on gold’s rally has sparked record demand for the precious metal, even as high prices push central banks to scale back their purchases. The value of global demand passed $100bn for the first time in the third quarter of this year, according to industry body the World Gold Council. Here’s what’s driving the unprecedented demand.

5. Pfizer’s chief executive fired back at activist investor Starboard Value yesterday as the drugmaker upped its 2024 revenue projections. Albert Bourla argued the company was already pushing ahead with a turnaround and that its plan would pay off in his first public comments since the activist investor criticised Pfizer’s board at a conference earlier this month.

Visual investigation

Sudan has descended into what is arguably the world’s most brutal civil war, with no sign of a victor or a peace deal. Reporting by the Financial Times demonstrates one way that atrocities are being committed: deliberate attacks on doctors and hospitals. Through satellite analysis and interviews, our latest visual investigation shows how the fighting is taking a devastating toll on the country’s health facilities.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Arm’s ambitions: The UK chip designer, whose shares have trebled in price over the past year, could be the unexpected winner of the AI investment boom.

• Apple and Goldman: The tech giant’s credit card with the Wall Street bank is a cautionary tale for those seeking to reinvent retail finance, writes Brooke Masters.

• Giant African rat: A furry investigator has boosted the ranks of those sniffing out contraband in the lucrative illegal wildlife trade.

Chart of the day

Samsung Electronics is struggling to hold on to its crown as the world’s top-selling smartphone maker. The Korean tech giant was the only one of the top five global smartphone makers to experience falling shipments in the third quarter of this year, losing market share to longtime US rival Apple and Chinese contenders offering slick new foldable devices.

Take a break from the news

Age matters when it comes to boards, writes Anjli Raval. Just 5 per cent of directors within the S&P 500 companies are under the age of 50 but companies should not be afraid to take a chance on youth, argues Raval.