REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A woman holds a parasol as she stands in a field of fireweed, or Kochia scoparia, on a sunny autumn day at the Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachi, north of Tokyo, October 26, 2015.
Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland over a cyber attack that may have led to the theft of data from among the 4 million customers of British broadband provider TalkTalk. The attack, which took place on Wednesday, prompted the company to deny accusations of laxity and say its security was "head and shoulders" above that of its competitors.
Asian stock markets are lower ahead of the start of the US Federal Reserve's 2-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei is down 0.90% at time of writing (6.30 a.m. BST/ 1.30 a.m. EST), the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.25%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.66%.
Volkswagen has hired a former CEO of General Motors' European division Opel to run group strategy. Thomas Sedran, interim CEO at Opel in 2012-2013 and head of GM's Chevrolet and Cadillac brands in Europe until June this year, will take up his role at VW on November 1.
US exchange operator ICE is buying Interactive Data (IDC) in a deal worth $5.2 billion (£3.4 billion), as part of an aggressive push into fixed income markets. The Financial Times reports that IDC provides analytics and reference data for banks and hedge funds for hard-to-value, off-exchange financial instruments.
JPMorgan Chase will soon launch its own competitor to Apple Pay that will allow consumers to pay retailers using their smartphones in US stores. Chase has signed a deal with the Merchant Customer Exchange, a group of major retailers including Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, and Best Buy to accept payments through the bank's technology, known as Chase Pay.
Volkswagen has lost its position as the world's biggest car manufacturer by sales. VW sold a huge 7.43 million cars in the nine months up to September, but that wasn't enough to stay on top, as Toyota sold 7.49 million over the same period.
Deutsche Bank is considering scaling back its Italian retail operations by selling branches and cutting jobs. New CEO John Cryan is under pressure to reform Germany's flagship bank to reduce costs and boost profitability.
Lockheed Martin has won a contract worth $260 million (£169.4 million) for the purchase of materials need to build the next batch of 28 C-130J Super Hercules transport planes in fiscal 2016. Lockheed reached agreement with the US Air Force on a five-year contract to build up to 83 C-130J planes for the Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps through 2020, a deal valued at over $6 billion (£3.9 billion).
Boeing has been awarded a contract worth $898 million (£585 million) to build 15 more EA-18G Growler electronic fighter jets and associated airborne electronic attack kits for the US Navy. The contract runs through January 2018, the Defense Department said in its daily digest of major contract awards.