Marks and Spencer are up 2% after the company announced a six-month pre-tax profit of £297 million, beating analysts’ expectations of £280m. The 128-year-old company reported an increase in international sales of 3.6%, with strong growth in emerging countries like China and India. The high street retailer said they are "well set up" for the Christmas season, which is their busiest time of the year. Security company G4S reported a 6% increase in nine-month revenue despite dropping the ball at the Olympics.
The European Commission have cut Spain’s growth forecast for 2013, predicting the Spanish economy will contract by 1.5% next year. The commission don’t see the Spanish economy growing again until the year 2015. There was further bad news for the eurozone today after the services PMI for the region came in at 46.0 for the month of October; a reading of 50.0 or below indicates the sector is shrinking.
Across the pond, the US presidential elections get under way. The latest polls suggest President Obama has a narrow lead over Republican candidate Mitt Romney.