Fruitful October was always going to be a hard month to follow. After strong gains, lacklustre Chinese data has left stock indices looking ripe for a fall at the start of the November trade.  European bourses are weakening, and there are losses across Asian stock benchmarks, after data out over the weekend showed a further contraction in China's manufacturing sector. (FT)

Meg Whitman will ring the bell of the New York Stock Exchange this morning, as the brand-new company she will lead - Hewlett Packard Enterprise- begins trading. The move will mark the end of the yearlong process of dividing the 76-year-old giant, resulting in two companies that are expected to have about $50B in annual revenue and each be among America's 500 largest public companies. On one side will be HP, which will largely consist of personal computers and printers. On the other will be HP Enterprise, which will sell servers, data storage, networking and consulting services. (SA)

Visa has agreed to acquire its former European subsidiary in a deal that could be worth as much as $25bn.  To fund the deal, Visa said it planned to raise about $16bn on the bond market in the first quarter of next year.  Combining forces will boost Visa’s scale to compete with rival MasterCard.  (FT)

The bond market is booming again, a sign of investors’ faith in the resilience of the U.S. economy.  U.S. bond sales by companies with good credit ratings hit $103 billion in October, a record for the month.  Corporate-bond sales in the U.S. are on track for their fourth straight annual record.  Many analysts say they expect bond sales to continue at a vigorous pace through the end of the year, reflecting steady economic growth, pent-up investor demand following a late-summer slowdown in bond issuance, and efforts by corporate treasurers to lock in low interest rates before a possible Federal Reserve interest-rate increase in December.  (WSJ)