10 things you need to know in markets today
European GDP figures are coming. Country-by-country figures for third quarter growth are rolling in all morning, before Eurozone-wide stats at 10.00 a.m. GMT (5.00 a.m. ET). Economists are predicting growth of 1.7% on last year's figure and 0.4% on the second quarter.
2 charts show just how important China's stock market is to economic growth. Tertiary industries - the service sector - blossomed in China in the third quarter, contributing a whopping 4 percentage points to GDP and around 58% of all economic growth. Financial services were the biggest driver within this.
Asian markets are down. Japan's Nikkei is down 0.51% at time of writing (6.40 a.m. GMT/1.40 a.m. ET), Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 2.50%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.95%.
Shares in troubled mining giant Glencore tumbled more than 6% in morning trade in Hong Kong on Friday after a rout in London. Investors are spooked by the continued sell-off in metals. The losses come as the Switzerland-based company Glencore struggles under the weight of tens-of-billions-of-dollars in debt with a global rout in commodities prices hitting its bottom line.
The video streaming site Hulu is in talks to sell a portion of itself to Time Warner that would value the company in the range of $5 billion (£3.3 billion) to $6 billion (£3.9 billion), The Wall Street Journal reports. The deal would give Time Warner the same shareholding as Hulu's current owners -Disney, Comcast, and Fox - and give each a 25% stake of Hulu, the report said.
Syngenta AG has rejected ChemChina's offer to buy the Swiss agricultural chemicals group in a deal valued at about $42 billion (£27.6 billion), citing regulatory concerns, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The offer follows a similarly priced bid from Monsanto that was withdrawn after Syngenta dismissed it as too low.
Watchmaker Fossil Group has agreed to acquire startup Misfit, a maker of wearable fitness trackers, for $260 million (£170.9 million), the Wall Street Journal reports. Sonny Vu, chief executive and co-founder of Misfit, will become president and chief technology officer of connected devices for Fossil Group.
As many as 15 million jobs are under threat of replacement by smart machines, the Bank of England's chief economist has warned. The Telegraph reports that Andy Haldane said a new generation of increasingly creative robots could replace "at risk" jobs over the next 20 years, such as those held by accountants and sales people.
Goldman Sachs has promoted 425 people to managing director, making it the firm's largest class ever. It's a big deal to be named a managing director. The title is one step below partner, one of the most highly coveted titles in investment banking.
Turing Pharmaceuticals, the US company that hit the headlines for gouging the price of a HIV treatment drug by 5,000%, made a big loss in the third quarter. For the quarter ending September 30, the company posted a $14.6 million (£9.6 million) net loss. Those three months cover the time that Turing acquired the US marketing rights to drug Daraprim.