Frontrunning: November 2

• Baffle with BS: German Bonds Decline Along With Peers as Draghi Cools QE Talk (BBG)
• And yet... ECB's Nowotny says low inflation forces ECB to act (Reuters)
• Stocks fall on China data, but stronger euro zone lifts gloom (Reuters)
• Global factories struggle as stimulus fails to spur (Reuters)
• Russian airline rules out technical fault, pilot error in Egypt crash (Reuters)
• Turkey returns to single-party rule in boost for Erdogan (Reuters)
• Shanghai Police Said to Raid Office of Hedge Fund Firm Zexi (BBG)
• Volkswagen Failed to Report Fatal Incident to U.S. Regulator (BBG)
• Jeb 2.0: Bush relaunches campaign with e-book, tour (Reuters)
• Clinton and Sanders Enter New Phase in Battle for New Hampshire (BBG)
• Oil Guru Who Called 2014 Rout Sees OPEC Production on Hold (BBG)
• Sprint Targets Snacks, Additional Cost Cuts (WSJ)
• Record Migrant Numbers Crossed Mediterranean in October, UN Says (BBG)
• Apple Financing Seen a Boon for Cheaper Carriers Like T-Mobile (BBG)
• Valeant Short Seller Dials Back Warning of Bombshell Report on Monday (WSJ)
• Shire to buy Dyax for $5.9 billion, still wants Baxalta (Reuters)
• National Bank of Greece Offers Debt Swap Following Stress Tests (BBG)
• Visa Agrees to Buy Visa Europe for as Much as $23.4 Billion (BBG)
• As third enrollment season kicks off, insurers move to curb costs, boost premiums (WSJ)
• Drug Makers Buy Pricey Vouchers to Speed Products to Market (WSJ)

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

- Sprint Corp Chief Executive Marcelo Claure is looking to shave as much as $2.5 billion from the company's operating expenses in the next six months. Among the first things to go: free water bottles and yogurt.(http://on.wsj.com/1N6CUNG)

- A short seller attacking Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc has pulled back on hints that he would unleash new bombshell revelations Monday about the drug company. (http://on.wsj.com/1KRISA2)

- The Affordable Care Act's third open enrollment season got under way, with a new array of health plans that show how the law's influence is starting to transform the insurance industry. (http://on.wsj.com/1Wq1EdV)

- There is a new price surge in the pharmaceutical industry - for a limited number of government-issued vouchers that drug makers, including AbbVie Inc and Sanofi SA, are buying to speed products to market. (http://on.wsj.com/1NLeufs)

- The United Auto Workers union is facing new pressures after a split vote at two plants showed the union's leadership still has much work ahead if it wants members to ratify a new four-year contract with General Motors Co. (http://on.wsj.com/1MsbnW9)

- Newspaper publisher Freedom Communications Inc, owner of the Orange County Register, on Sunday filed for bankruptcy-court protection with a plan to sell the beleaguered company to a local investment group led by the company's publisher. (http://on.wsj.com/1RItgEh)

FT

Foreign banks operating in U.S. are "window dressing", or reducing about $170 billion from their accounts every quarter, in an effort to appear more stable and profitable, according to a new study by the Office of Financial Research.

Europe's biggest defence contractor, BAE Systems PLC , has agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in rocket engine maker Reaction Engines for 20.6 million pounds ($31.82 million).

On Tuesday, San Francisco voters will vote to decide whether short-term rentals, such as the one offered by Airbnb, be limited to 75 days a year. The vote threatens the existence of Airbnb in its home town of San Francisco.

Martin Blessing, chief executive of Germany's second biggest bank Commerzbank since 2008, has decided against renewing his contract and will retire by next October, the bank said on Sunday.

NYT

- Burdened by debt and struggling to meet its financial obligations, Freedom Communications, the media company that owns The Orange County Register, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday with an eye toward selling the company to the publisher and a group of local investors. (http://nyti.ms/1GWrora)

- The potential explanations for the fatal Egyptian Sinai crash include several possibilities, from a sudden mechanical or structural failure to a terrorist attack. (http://nyti.ms/1Wq9WT3)

- Meeting for the first time in three years, leaders from China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday that they would meet annually and work toward greater trade ties, even as they continued to wrangle over territorial and historical disputes. (http://nyti.ms/1NjXQFb)

- Roller coasters and other rides based on the "Hunger Games" movies will anchor new theme parks in the United States and China, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp chief brand officer said. (http://nyti.ms/1XJ9KM0)

- With a clause in complex contracts that few people read, corporations have insulated themselves from lawsuits and locked Americans into a system where arbitrators overwhelmingly favor business. (http://nyti.ms/1Mb4aOB)

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Suncor Energy Inc is plotting a regulatory challenge to Canadian Oil Sands Ltd's new shareholder rights plan while pressing a case that its takeover target risks being left without an offer as time wears on. Suncor Chief Executive Steve Williams said the board of Canadian Oil Sands had a more valuable bid from his company to consider last spring and dismissed it without taking it to its investors.(http://bit.ly/1NLXDcu)

** The catastrophic break-up high over the Sinai Peninsula of a Russian airliner filled with returning Red Sea vacationers was consistent with an explosion or massive structure failure. The Airbus 321 was torn apart, with all 224 on board the St. Petersburg-bound flight killed on Saturday, less than 24 minutes after a predawn take-off as the twin-engined jet neared its cruising altitude above the remote, mountainous, central Sinai. (http://bit.ly/1NkCpE2)

** Prime-minister-designate Justin Trudeau has picked a small cabinet that will leave a number of Liberal veterans on the back benches, opting for a group of ministers that more accurately reflects Canada's diverse population, sources said. The choices were made last week in a federal building that houses the Canadian Forces Recruitment Center in downtown Ottawa.(http://bit.ly/1klNw46)

NATIONAL POST

** The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is destroying the personal information of wine, beer and spirit club members that the privacy commissioner said it was wrong to collect - but only after putting up a legal fight that cost more than a quarter of a million dollars. (http://bit.ly/1l3czJM)

** The Art Gallery of Ontario announced on Friday it will join a global movement to collect Lego for dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's next project. Ai planned another of his massive, trademark installation pieces for an Australian gallery, but the Danish company that makes the tiny plastic bricks refused the order over concerns the piece would further a "political agenda". (http://bit.ly/1M6ssFZ)

China

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

- Average house prices in 100 of China's big cities rose 0.3 percent month-on-month in October, 0.02 percent higher than the rise in September, according to a report published by the China Index Academy on Sunday.

- Ninety-three new companies were listed in China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30, 13 less than the previous week, according to calculations by NEEQ. However, trading volume over the same period increased 0.9 percent to 28.23 billion yuan ($4.47 billion).

SECURITIES TIMES

- China's movie industry posted a 50.39 percent jump in total revenue to 33 billion yuan over January to September, compared with the same period in 2014, according to China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

- Total assets under management overseen by Chinese securities companies in the third-quarter increased 720.0 billion yuan, up 7 percent compared with the second-quarter, according to the Asset Management Association of China.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

- Central Huijin Investment Ltd, China Securities Finance Corp Ltd and a project held by 10 funds, which are known as "National Team", held shares of 1,365 listed companies by the end of Sept. 30, about half of all listed companies in China, according to the paper's calculation based on companies' third-quarter reports.

Britain

The Times

The Bank of England is to hold a "war game" next week to test the defences of the world's largest financial institutions against a cyber attack. "Resilient Shield" will simulate a hack on computers that underpin the global financial system. The aim is to assess whether the networks used by banks can withstand a concerted attempt by hackers to breach their security. (http://thetim.es/1WslfF1)

British Prime Minister David Cameron has formed a task force to negotiate the terms of a financial aid package for a 5 billion pound ($7.72 billion), 1,000-mile (1,610-km) power line under the Atlantic Ocean. This undersea cable aims to bring electricity generated by Iceland's hot lava and thundering waterfalls to Britain. (http://thetim.es/1WslsIo)

The Guardian

The UK is expected to lose tens of millions of pounds in VAT avoidance and evasion this Christmas as a growing number of non-EU sellers, including hundreds from China, increasingly dominate sales of popular gifts on Amazon and eBay . (http://bit.ly/1WrNTpZ)

Britain's biggest banks are expected to find out on Monday whether they are in line for a multi-million pound windfall from a 14 billion-pound sale of Visa Europe. (http://bit.ly/1WslFet)

The Telegraph

Media giants and private investors including Discovery Communications, BT and a consortium led by its former chairman, Luke Johnson, are circling Channel 4 as the government prepares to sell off the broadcaster. (http://bit.ly/1WslP5E)

George Osborne is "playing with fire" and could trigger a political storm as big as the tax credits controversy if he decides to throw out the rules on pension tax relief, the leader of one of Britain's biggest saving firms has warned. (http://bit.ly/1WslUpU)

Sky News

The Bank of England has told the credit card giant Visa to keep a substantial presence in the UK after the $23.5 billion takeover of its European operations amid wider concerns about the integrity of international payment systems. (http://bit.ly/1WrLvPR)

Families could end up paying 100 pounds more for insurance policies per year, experts have warned. The standard rate of Insurance Premium Tax has risen from 6 percent to 9.5 percent, affecting all policies which have a start date from Nov. 1 onwards. (http://bit.ly/1Wsm4O5)

The Independent

Hopes of a revival for China's slowing economy were dashed after its manufacturing sector shrank for a third successive month in October, as a raft of stimulus measures failed to steer it back on course. (http://ind.pn/1Wsmm7P)

Facebook is to change its "real name" policy, allowing people to more easily prove who they are - but not getting rid of it entirely. (http://ind.pn/1WsmqEs)