“There is only one side of the market and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side.” – Jesse Livermore

1. Bank of England (BOE) Keeps Rates Steady — the majority of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee remains against raising interest rates, voting 7-2 to maintain a record low rate of 0.5%, minutes from the October 7-8 meeting show. The minutes said that for most members, there remained “insufficient evidence” of inflationary pressure to raise rates.
2. GT Advanced, Apple in Deal for ‘Amicable’ Split-Up — WSJ, Apple and GT Advanced have agreed to wind down Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mesa, AZ plant, once expected to provide sapphire that would be used to protect millions of Apple device screens. The plant’s sapphire furnaces (owned/operated by GT) will be sold and some of the proceeds used to pay down GT’s (NASDAQ:GTAT) debt to Apple. The deal suggests Apple will be turning to 3rd-party sapphire suppliers to obtain cover glass for the Apple Watch, which is set to ship in early 2015.
3. Tekmira starts limited manufacturing of therapeutic for Ebola — Reuters, Tekmira has begun limited manufacturing of a therapeutic part of its TKM-Ebola program, which will be available by early December. The company’s investigational new drug application to U.S. regulators for TKM-Ebola remains on partial clinical hold, although U.S. and Canadian regulators authorized its use last month for patients who have confirmed or suspected infections from the deadly virus. Also, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will begin testing an Ebola vaccine on humans in January, and plans to have 250K doses of the experimental vaccine ready for use in clinical trials in May.
4. U.S. regulators expand number of vehicles affected by Takata airbag problem recalls — Reuters, the NHTSA has expanded its warning about faulty airbags made by Takata (OTCPK:TKTDY) to 6.1M U.S. vehicles. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges owners of certain Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), Mazda (OTCPK:MZDAY), BMW (OTCPK:BAMXY), Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY), Mitsubishi (OTC:MMTOY), Subaru (OTCPK:FUJHY), Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU), Ford (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags,”.
5. China GDP Growth Rate Is Slowest in Five Years —WSJ, China’s economic growth slowed in the third quarter to its weakest in more than five years as it battled a slumping real-estate market and weak domestic demand and industrial production. The world’s second-largest economy grew 7.3% between July and September from a year earlier, slightly above the 7.2% forecast by analysts but slowing from 7.5% in Q2.
6. New York Doctor Tests Positive for Ebola — WSJ, A NYC doctor, who returned to New York ten days ago after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, has tested positive for the virus. Meanwhile, Mali has confirmed its first case of Ebola, becoming the sixth West African country to report a case of the virus.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: