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We are starting a busy corporate earnings week with bullish numbers from HSBC, which saw its profits rise in the third quarter.

The lender’s pre-tax profit more than doubled in the three-month period to $ 5.4 billion thanks to a strong post-pandemic recovery and easing geopolitical tensions in Asia.

HSBC wrote off $ 700 million in expected credit losses due to defaults and said it expects to recover more over the remainder of the year. This helped offset the drop in income in wealth management and the markets.

The bank said the improvement in its confidence enabled it to initiate a stock buyback of up to $ 2 billion.

5 things to start your day

1) Tesco App and Website Suffer From Hacking Crash: Supermarket says it is taking steps to protect data as an outage prevents shoppers from placing orders.

2) The UK recovery windfall is threatened by a £ 50bn jump in debt payments: Rising inflation means Britain has to pay a lot more to service the national debt, reducing the benefits of a faster recovery

3) Scotch whiskey production is likely to dry up by 2080: A drastic drop in precipitation and higher temperatures due to climate change could leave distillers without essential ingredients.

4) Facebook applications used to groom 24 children each week: The revelation comes as whistleblower Frances Haugen prepares to testify before Parliament.

5) Plot-to-give up railroad timetable posters raise safety fears: A group of commuters warn that switching to QR codes could leave passengers vulnerable late at night.

What happened during the night

Asian markets were mixed on Monday after last week’s gains, with investors keeping a concerned eye on a new outbreak of Covid in China that could weigh on the already faltering economy.

Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced while Tokyo retreated.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to 3,594.32 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 1% to 28,520.35. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.1 pc to 26,157.11.

Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.2% to 3,013.13 and Sydney’s S & P-ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 7,444.00.

New Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta fell.

Coming today

Business : HSBC, Plus500 (temporary); Petropavlovsk (commercial update)

Economy: Chicago Fed National Activity Index (WE)