The UK 100 is called to open +29 points today at 7233.  A positive start is expected this morning on the UK's Blue-chip index, this week will see a raft of company quarterly earnings released, Lloyds, Shell, NatWest and GlaxoSmithKline to name but a few, as well as Rishi Sunak’s autumn Budget.  Stocks in the Asia were mostly higher on Monday, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.29% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.08%, In Japan however, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.88%.  Friday saw a mixed session stateside as The Dow Jones rose 74 points, or 0.21 percent, to trade at 35,677. The S&P lost 5 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 4,545.  And the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 125 points, or 0.82 percent to 15,090.20.

HSBC reported a 74% rise in Q3 profit, beating market expectations as the Asia-focused bank released cash set aside for expected bad loans that have not materialised. They posted a pretax profit of $5.4bn beating analyst average forecasts of $3.78bn. They also announced a share buyback of up to $2bn, as it continues to return excess capital to shareholders in place of investing the cash in its businesses. They also released $700m in cash it had put aside in case pandemic-related bad loans spiked.

Petropavlovsk reports improved performance at each of its mines during Q3.

Plus500 said it expected 2021 core profit to beat analyst's' expectations as Q3 revenue stayed well above pre-pandemic levels. Q3 revenue came in at $211.4m (2020: $216.4m).

Tesco have said that its website and app are back up and running after the services were hacked over the weekend.

Citigroup Downgrades Carnival to Neutral from Buy (4 Buys / 2 Holds / 4 Sells)

Exane BNP Upgrades Weir Group to Outperform from Neutral (7 Buys / 6 Holds / 0 Sells)

Stifel Upgrades EasyJet to Hold from Sell (10 Buys / 5 Holds / 1 Sell)