10 things you need to know in markets today

Good morning! Here are the 10 things you need to know in markets on Tuesday.

Chinese inflation came in weak.Consumer prices in China rose just 1.3% in October compared to the same month last year, missing expectations for an increase of 1.5%. The figure marked the slowest annual expansion seen since May, and was well below the 1.6% pace seen in September.

Asian markets are weak on the back of the price growth figures. Japan’s Nikkei is up 0.25% at time of writing (6.30 a.m. GMT/1.30 a.m. ET), the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 1.53%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.15%.

Prime Minister David Cameron kicks off his efforts to reform the European Union on Tuesday. Cameron, who has frustrated some EU officials by giving away few details on the changes he would like to see, will send a letter to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, setting out his four main objectives.

Greece failed to convince European creditors on Monday to release vital bailout funds to shore up the country’s public coffers and its crippled banks. Though the Greek government has met many of the conditions attached to the country’s third international bailout, it still needs to push through some financial reforms.

Greek inflation figures are coming at 10 a.m. GMT (5 a.m. ET). Prices dropped 1.7% in September.

Global energy use is set to grow by one-third over the next 25 years, driven mostly by emerging economies, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. Energy consumption in the most developed nations is expected to decline over the same period, it said in its annual World Energy Outlook.

Fitch ratings agency has cut Volkswagen’s credit rating by two notches, saying that a widening pollution cheating scandal has exposed weak corporate governance at the German auto giant. “We believe that the emergence of a fraud of this magnitude, going either unnoticed or uncorrected by top management for so long is not consistent with a rating in the ‘A’ category,” said Fitch.

The resumption of IPO listings is likely to lead to further gains in Chinese stocks in the period ahead, according to Credit Suisse. But the bank said worryingly that: “Individual investors believe the upcoming IPOs will bring them ‘risk-free’ returns as usual”, in a note on the changes announced over the weekend.

easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall has given her first interview since the Egyptian security crisis to the BBC. She told the BBC: “This will be a global thing, not just an Egyptian thing or a North African thing. And I think passengers will be happy about that and I think airlines will support that, because no-one wants a security threat.”

London office space under construction is at a 7-year high. But the Financial Times reports that this won’t have an immediate effect on rents, as the amount of office space available in the capital is at a 14-year low.

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