Business Live: Oil price drops sharply

EurostatCopyright: Eurostat

The European Commission has told Italy to revise its budget, an unprecedented move with regard to an EU member state.

The Commission is worried about the impact of higher spending on already high levels of debt in Italy, the eurozone's third-biggest economy.

Italy's governing populist parties have vowed to push ahead with campaign promises including a minimum income for the unemployed.

The country now has three weeks to submit a new, draft budget to Brussels.

The full story is here, including the chart above showing Italy's government debt as a percentage of GDP.

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More on Elon Musk.

Earlier the BBC reported that Elon Musk says Twitter briefly blocked him because the tech firm suspected his account had been hacked.

The Tesla chief indicated the safety precaution was prompted by a tweet he had sent asking: "Wanna buy some Bitcoin?"

Several fake accounts have previously used images of Mr Musk and variations of his name to promote cryptocurrency scams, sometimes within replies to his posts.

Twitter has not commented.

Read the full story.

US stocks have closed lower, but have recovered most of their earlier losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 125.98 points, or 0.5%, to 25,191.43, the S&P 500 lost 15.19 points, or 0.55%, to 2,740.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 31.09 points, or 0.42% to 7,437.54.

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“We’re in a hell of a mess in every direction," Paul Volcker, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, has told the New York Times.

“Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it’s all gone,” the former central banker said. “Even respect for the Federal Reserve".

“And it’s really bad. At least the military still has all the respect. But I don’t know, how can you run a democracy when nobody believes in the leadership of the country?”

The full interview can be read here.

He led the Fed from 1979-87 and, as this piece describes, during a period when the central bank was tackling the high inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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A US start-up that manufactures internet-connected devices that allows users to smoke cannabis more effectively, looks to be on a high...

Pax Labs raised $20m in its latest funding round, which reportedly values the firm at around $5bn. Pax Labs last raised money in 2015 to expand internationally.

The company's founders, James Monsees and Adam Bowen, are also behind the immensely popular vaping device JUUL.

Last week Canada became the second country to legalise the commercial sale of recreational cannabis, sparking interest among investors for opportunities to cash in on the demand.

Earlier, the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC he believes US President Donald Trump is "very keen" to do a trade deal.

Mr Fox was speaking in New York, where he was in town to promote the ties between the two countries.

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Reaction is coming in to McDonald's third quarter earnings, which showed profits down but sales up.

"The imbalance between costs and sales is ...one of the reasons why some franchisees are unhappy. McDonald’s is going through a period of change and part of this involves updating stores, the offer, and operations in order to allow the company to perform in a more competitive marketplace," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

"Unfortunately for franchisees, the financial and operational burden of some of this change falls on them. This is a price that they are willing to pay so long as they see results in the form of better sales and profits. However, now these benefits are coming through more slowly, many are starting to question the strategy," he added.

The changes the fast food giant are making are "right" he said, but "the challenge is to ensure that sales growth comes through at a faster pace and that costs are moderated to counterbalance the investment".

Here's some video of the BBC's Tim Willcox asking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the Future Investment Initiative.

The FII was due to feature 150 high-profile speakers from 140 firms.

But some 40 participants are understood to have pulled out amid allegations the country was behind Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The US stock market indices the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had been trading at their lowest level for around six months.

The falls followed a downbeat performance from Asian stocks overnight. The MSCI's world share index has been trading close to its lowest level for a year.

But, just as the US exchanges head for the close of the day's session, share prices are recovering much of their lost ground.

Here's the fuller market story.

US stock markets are recovering from the day's lows as the US exchanges head towards the close.

The Dow Jones index - which had been off as much as 2% - is now off 0.32% or 82 points at 25,235.21.

The electric car maker is due to release its latest results on Wednesday.

European Central BankCopyright: European Central Bank

Professor Costas Milas at the University of Liverpool has been watching the decision by Brussels to reject Italy's budget. He says that while the ratings agency Moody's has already downgraded the country's debt, rival S&P is due to make its decision on Friday.

"The main issue here is that Italy’s downgrade will be followed, sooner than later, by credit rating downgrades of all Italian banks.

"This will put upward pressure on their borrowing costs, a problem compounded by the fact that Italian banks have the highest share of domestic debt in their total assets in Eurozone’s periphery. This is as much as 19% compared with 6.8% in the case of Greece, 12% in the case of Portugal and 11% in the case of Spain.

"So Italy is not Greece; it is much worse".

He uses the chart, above, to illustrate his point.

Much depends on whether the Italian government decides to escalate its disagreement with the Commission, he said.

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Oil prices have fallen amid concerns about the political tensions with Saudi Arabia and as stock markets around the world are on the slide.

Brent crude futures and US crude were both down more than 4% - the biggest percentage drops since July.

Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy, told Reuters: "Concerns about what's going on in the stock markets and the worries about economic growth has spilled over into the oil markets".

Brent crude futures were trading around $76 a barrel and US crude around $66 a barrel.

Plans are being drawn up to charter ships to bring in emergency food and medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Financial Times is reporting.

According to the FT, the cabinet was told on Tuesday that the move was necessary as the Dover-Calais route could quickly be blocked by new customs controls on the French side.

The FT story (paywall) is here.

Back to Sir James Dyson's plan to build his electric car in Singapore.

It has come under fierce criticism from Labour MP Ian Murray. The 'Best for Britain' campaigner said:

Quote Message: Sir James Dyson was a prominent campaigner for Brexit, unlike most business leaders who recognised the huge risk to Britain's economy. Now his UK-based company has chosen to build its new electric car in Singapore. It's hardly a vote of confidence in global Britain. When even someone who claims there will be a resurgence in British manufacturing after Brexit isn't prepared to put his money where his mouth is, it raises serious questions about the future of our economy and the impact on jobs and livelihoods as a result of Brexit.

Sir James Dyson was a prominent campaigner for Brexit, unlike most business leaders who recognised the huge risk to Britain's economy. Now his UK-based company has chosen to build its new electric car in Singapore. It's hardly a vote of confidence in global Britain. When even someone who claims there will be a resurgence in British manufacturing after Brexit isn't prepared to put his money where his mouth is, it raises serious questions about the future of our economy and the impact on jobs and livelihoods as a result of Brexit.

EPACopyright: EPA

Italy has responded to the decision by Brussels to reject its budget.

The unprecedented move was to be expected, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said. The Five Star leader had celebrated when the government pushed through a budget backing his reform plans last month.

"This is the first Italian budget that the EU doesn't like. I am not surprised. This is the first Italian budget that was written in Rome and not in Brussels," Mr Di Maio said on Facebook, according to Reuters.

The FTSE 100 has closed 87 points lower at 6,955.21, that's 1.24%.

Germany's DAX has closed 2.2% lower at 11,274.28

In Paris, the key stock market index has ended 1.7% lower at 4,967.69

In the US, the Dow Jones index is still trading and off 467 points at 24,849, around 1.8% lower.

YOUTUBE/POWERFULJRECopyright: YOUTUBE/POWERFULJRE

Shares in the electric car maker Tesla are up 6% - defying the wider market malaise - after one of its critics reversed its negative stance.

Citron Research said: "With a great deal of analysis and due diligence that we can say for the first time, Citron is long Tesla".

Until now the fund manager has been known a short-seller of the stock, which means it has been taking positions on the assumption that the shares will fall rather than rise.

"Like a magic trick, while everyone is focused on Elon Musk smoking weed, he is quietly smoking the whole automotive industry," Citron said.

In September Mr Musk smoked marijuana live on the web duringa podcast with comedian Joe Rogan.