Hello and welcome to the working week.

Have you had enough of politics? Well, I’ve some good news for you. The diary for the next seven days is driven by corporate news and the importance of business.

We are in the thick of earnings season with financial services, including the last of the Wall Street banks to report, dominating the results schedule. But it is not just earnings calls. There is a change at the top of Nike, aimed at leading a turnaround of what has of late been a troubled business. New boss Elliott Hill was a Nike intern and spent much of his career at “The Swoosh”, bar a brief period as an assistant trainer for the Dallas Cowboys American football team. This CV is markedly different to the man Hill is replacing — Ivy League-educated former tech executive John Donahoe — something the company hopes will augur well for the future.

The Tokyo Metro will be in the news as pricing for its initial public offering is announced. This is one of Japan’s largest remaining non-financial businesses still entirely in state hands. The buoyant Tokyo market, say officials and bankers, presents an unmissable opportunity for a bumper IPO and will break a bit of a drought in large-scale listings on the Tokyo exchange. For more insight, FT Tokyo bureau chief Leo Lewis writes beautifully about the subject, which as he notes is a classic late-capitalist trade-off between profitability and public service, but with national identity as the principal currency.

The UK’s still relatively new Labour government will host what it hopes will be a major investment summit in central London on Monday, introducing its just appointed investment minister, the co-founder of cyber security business Darktrace, Poppy Gustafsson. The event, promised before the general election as part of Labour’s first actions in government to boost growth, relies on drawing in some big hitters. About 200 executives are expected, but there is concern that key business leaders will not attend, and that the day will be overshadowed by the threat of tax rises in chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget, held just 16 days later.

The next few days bring a steady flow of economic data reports, notably inflation updates (the UK, Canada, India and Japan), UK unemployment and wages data, industrial production figures from the US plus a third-quarter GDP estimate from China. All eyes will be on Frankfurt on Thursday as the European Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee meets. The Eurozone’s slowing growth has led economists to expect a 0.25 percentage-point rate cut. More details below.

One more thing . . . 

Music is a force that has flowed through me all my life. One of my favourite sections in the FT Weekend is Life of a Song in the Life & Arts section. Now I have a chance to plug this slot given that this week is both National Album Day in the UK and the 39th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Here’s a selection of the best of them.

What are your priorities for the next seven days? Email me at jonathan.moules@ft.com or, if you are reading this from your inbox, hit reply.

Key economic and company reports

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.

Monday

• Elliott Hill becomes Nike president and chief executive, succeeding John Donahoe who retired yesterday

• Hargreaves Lansdown general meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by a consortium comprising CVC Advisers, Nordic Capital XI Delta, SCSP and Platinum Ivy

• Swati Dhingra, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will be a panellist at the Reserve Bank of India’s 90th anniversary conference in New Delhi

• Canada: Thanksgiving Day. Financial markets closed

• China: September trade balance figures

• India: September consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate data

• Japan: Health and Sports Day. Financial markets closed

• Opec October Oil Market Report

• Results: Ashmore Q1 AUM statement, Chemring trading update, HCL Technologies Q2, PageGroup Q3 trading update, Reliance Industries Q2

Tuesday

• Tokyo Metro is expected to announce the final pricing of its initial public offering, before shares in the transport operator are set to begin trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on October 23

• IEA October Oil Market Report

• Canada: September CPI inflation rate data

• Germany: ZEW survey expectations

• UK: October labour market statistics

• Results: Bank of America Q3, Bellway FY, Charles Schwab Q3, Citigroup Q3, Goldman Sachs Q3, Johnson & Johnson Q3, Mitie HY trading update, PNC Financial Services Q3, Qinetiq Q2 trading update, Reach Q3 trading update, Robert Walters Q3 trading update, State Street Q3, UnitedHealth Q3, Victorian Plumbing FY, Walgreens Boots Alliance Q4

Wednesday

• UK: September CPI and producer price index (PPI) inflation rate data

• Results: Abbott Laboratories Q3, Alcoa Q3, ASML Holding Q3, Brooks Macdonald Q1 funds under management, Citizens Financial Group Q3, Crown Castle Q3, CSX Q3, Equifax Q3, Just Eat Takeaway Q3 trading update, Kinder Morgan Q3, Marshalls Q3 trading update, Mony Q3 trading statement, Morgan Stanley Q3, Ninety One Q2 assets under management, Oxford Instruments trading update, Prologis Q3, Quilter Q3 trading update, Rio Tinto Q3 operations review, United Airlines Q3, US Bancorp Q3, Whitbread HY

Thursday

• IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva gives a curtain raiser speech on the outlook for the global economy and policy priorities ahead of her organisation’s 2024 annual meetings in Washington

• EU: European Central Bank interest rate decision

• Japan: September trade balance figures

• Turkey: interest rate decision

• Results: ABB Q3, AJ Bell FY trading update, BHP Group operational review, Blackstone Q3, Centamin Q3, Deliveroo Q3 trading update, Discover Financial Services Q3, Entain Q3 trading update, GB Group HY trading update, Ibstock trading update, Infosys Q2, KeyCorp Q3, M&T Bank Q3, Marsh & McLennan Q3, Mondi Q3, Netflix Q3, Nokia Q3, PPG Industries Q3, Publicis Groupe Q3, Rank Q1 trading update, Rathbones Group Q3 interim management statement, Rentokil Initial Q3 trading update, Schindler Q3, Snap-On Q3, St James’s Place Q3 new business announcement, Travelers Q3

Friday

• China: Q3 GDP data

• Japan: September CPI inflation rate data

• UK: September retail sales for Great Britain

• US: September industrial production figures

• Results: American Express Q3, Comerica Q3, Fifth Third Bancorp Q3, Procter & Gamble Q1, Schlumberger Q3

World events

Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week. 

Monday

• UK: government will host its International Investment Summit. Foreign secretary David Lammy will be at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, in Luxembourg

• US: Columbus Day holiday. Financial markets remain open

Tuesday

Wednesday

• UK: Labour party MP Kim Leadbeater set to put forward her bill on assisted dying in England and Wales to parliament. Separately, the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture winner, considered the most prestigious event in the country’s architecture calendar, will be announced at a ceremony in London

Thursday

• Belgium: Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte hosts a meeting of defence ministers from member states in Brussels, his first time doing this since taking up his role. The meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels runs until tomorrow.

• EU: European Council’s two-day meeting of EU heads of state and government, chaired by the European Council president Charles Michel, begins in Brussels. The agenda includes military aid and energy infrastructure reinforcement for Ukraine, violence in the Middle East and promoting a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine

Friday

• Australia: King Charles and Queen Camilla begin a state visit to Australia, Charles’s first trip overseas since his cancer diagnosis. The tour continues into next week

• Italy: G7 defence ministers meeting in Naples, attended by ministers of the G7 member nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US.

Saturday

• UK: National Album Day, seventh annual event celebrating the anniversary of the album format. This year’s theme is ‘Great British Groups’, celebrated by Album Champions including Shed Seven, Catherine Marks, Jeff Wayne, Liam Fray, Nova Twins, Jazzie B and Travis

• US: 39th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony streamed live on Disney+. To be eligible, acts must have released their first single or album at least 25 years before the year of nomination. This year’s inductees are Mary J Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest.

Sunday

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX accomplished a momentous technical feat early on Sunday morning by catching a booster rocket with mechanical arms on its return from a test flight.

At dawn on the Texas coast, SpaceX launched an unmanned Starship rocket with its “super heavy booster”. After a brief flight into the atmosphere, the booster broke away from the Starship and descended vertically, braking its drop with engine blasts.

The booster fell directly back to the launch pad where it was caught by the tower’s metal arms — referred to as “chopsticks” — in a roar of smoke and fire.

“The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk posted on his social media platform X. “Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today.”

“Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the company’s webcast. “I am, like, shaking right now.”

The rest of the ship orbited Earth and then splashed down into the Indian Ocean as planned.

Sunday’s flight marks the fifth Starship launch for SpaceX, one of the most valuable private companies in the world. In June, the Starship successfully re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and also splashed down in the Indian Ocean. In September, SpaceX conducted the first privately funded spacewalk for two astronauts.

The successful booster catch is crucial to Starship’s design as a fully-reusable vehicle. Once Starship is operational, SpaceX can make faster trips into space, the company has said. A single Starship flight costs $100mn, Morgan Stanley has estimated, adding that this estimate could eventually drop to $50mn.

SpaceX is preparing for a manned orbit of the moon in 2025 and a moon landing in 2026.

SpaceX was most recently valued at $180bn, which would make it one of the top 50 most valuable companies in the S&P 500 index, Morgan Stanley said in an April report. Its Starlink division has built the world’s biggest satellite network, comprising 2.6mn subscribers.

“We expect Starship to become operational for commercial and government launches in 2027,” the report said. “In 2030 and beyond, we expect all SpaceX launches to be completed by Starship.”

But Sunday’s successful mission came two days after Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company, unveiled a “robotaxi” that failed to impress investors. Tesla’s share price is down 13 per cent over the past 12 months.

Musk, the world’s richest man, has become one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters. The two campaigned together at a rally in Pennsylvania this month.

SAINSBURY’S shoppers are raving over a Chilly’s dupe scanning at tills for just £3.75

Chilly’s bottles have been a craze for quite some time due to their infinite designs and double-wall insulation – keeping drinks looking and tasting pretty cool.

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Typically, Chilly’s bottles tend to lean toward the pricier side – costing between around £24.

One savvy saver took to the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group to share details of their Chilly’s dupe spotting.

The saver shared a photo of the bright orange bottle along with the receipt clearly showing the purchase of £3.75.

They wrote: “On the shelf it said £5 something. Scanned at the til for £3.75. Sainsbury’s North Cheam.”

The North Cheam store is based in Sutton on London Road.

Interestingly, a label on the bottle states: “Smash Double Wall Insulated Bottle”.

Like the Chilly’s bottles, the Smash bottles are also double walled.

The bottle is also screw top, 500ml, vacuum insulated, and comes in a bunch of other styles.

It can be bought directly from Sainsbury’s website, or from Argos.

However, it’s showing up online as £7.50.

One person left a raving review: “Perfect. Keeps my drink cold all day. Love the colour too.”

While another said: “Great. I like the colour a lot and it serves the purpose.”

Meanwhile the same bottle but in burgundy is lapping up the five-star reviews.

One person said: “Useful bottle. Lovely colour and well made with a good seal in the top.

“Keeps drinks cold and holds enough for a day out. Functional and a reasonable price“

While a second said: “Nice. I love it, bought it for my kids.”

And a third said: “Would Recommend! Having gone through so many plastic water bottles I thought to get a stainless steel one and its so worth it!

“Easy to clean and great at keeping cold.”

On the Sainsbury’s website there are in fact 100 Smash items to choose from.

But for this particular style of bottle the colours come in blue, beige, orange, burgundy, black and pink.

As always, we recommend shopping around to find the best deal.

Checking in-store availability is also recommended to avoid making a wasted trip.

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The UN accused Israel of a “flagrant violation” of international law on Sunday after Israeli tanks broke into a position stationed by peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, hours before Benjamin Netanyahu told international forces to withdraw from combat areas.

The Israeli prime minister’s demand came as Israeli forces continued their fierce bombardment of the country and ramped up their offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has faced widespread international criticism after several soldiers from Unifil, the UN-mandated force deployed along the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon, were injured by Israeli fire during the invasion of southern Lebanon last week. Israeli air strikes have also killed two Lebanese soldiers, according to the Lebanese military.

The UN peacekeepers said that IDF tanks, early on Sunday, “destroyed” the main gate of its position in Ramiya, where fighting between Israel and Hizbollah has been fierce. Unifil said Israeli troops “forcibly entered the position” and demanded “that the base turn out its lights”, leaving 45 minutes later.

Around two hours later, Unifil said that “several rounds” fired 100m away from the base let off smoke, which caused 15 peacekeepers to require treatment for “skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions”. It also said IDF troops had stopped Unifil troops completing a logistical movement in a separate area on Saturday. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before the reports emerged on Sunday, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni told Netanyahu that what she called Israeli attacks on Unifil were “unacceptable”. US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin also expressed “deep concern” in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Saturday.

However, in a video published on Sunday, Netanyahu hit back at the criticism and said Unifil should pull back from areas where fighting was taking place. “We regret the harm to Unifil soldiers and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone,” he said.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati rejected Netanyahu’s demand and said Lebanon was committed to the 2006 UN resolution that mandates Unifil’s presence. He called on the international community to “stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”. 

Unifil’s mandate is to keep the peace and help the Lebanese government and national army build its presence in border areas where Hizbollah has long held sway. But both Israel and Lebanon complain the mandate has never been properly implemented.

Fighting in southern Lebanon’s hilly terrain continued on Sunday, with Hizbollah reporting clashes with Israeli troops. The Lebanese group launched 115 rockets at Israel by mid-afternoon, according to the Israeli military, while Israeli jets and artillery pounded targets in southern Lebanon. 

Lebanese health authorities said 15 people had been killed by Israeli air raids on Saturday, including in areas considered to be outside of the Shia militant group’s traditional strongholds.

Israeli bombing also damaged three hospitals in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa region, Lebanese health authorities said. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross said four of its rescue volunteers were injured by a strike as they attended the scene of a bombing in south Lebanon.

On Saturday night, Israeli jets hit the southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh. Lebanese state media compared the attack to a “hurricane”, saying the Israeli military had appeared to target the commercial centre of one of southern Lebanon’s largest towns.

Fires blazed in the wreckage of Nabatieh’s old market district as rescue workers picked their way through the rubble, footage showed, caking surrounding streets in thick grey dust. Lebanese health authorities said eight people were hurt.

The Israeli military had warned people to leave the town about 10 days ago. On Sunday, it warned people to flee a further 18 southern Lebanese communities. The UN estimates such orders now cover an area equivalent to a quarter of Lebanon’s entire territory. 

Israeli forces also expanded their offensive in the north of Gaza, after encircling and bombarding the area of Jabalia, which before the war was home to a densely populated refugee camp.

The camp has been the scene of several pitched battles between Israeli forces and Hamas, as the militant group attempts to regroup in the area. In the last few days, the IDF has ordered thousands of civilians to leave the north of Gaza and move south to an overcrowded “humanitarian zone” in Al Mawasi. 

Health officials in Gaza said the Israeli offensive had killed 52 people in the past 24 hours. The IDF said it had killed “dozens” of Hamas fighters in the same period.

Additional reporting by Amy Kazmin in Rome and Steff Chávez in Washington

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The writer is the founder of Tax Policy Associates, a think-tank

Offshore secrecy is a serious problem. Tax avoidance, tax evasion, sanctions evasion, drug cartels, corruption, questionable PPE contracts and untraceable political donations — all are enabled by offshore companies whose ownership and accounts are hidden from public view.

We shouldn’t just focus on “tax havens”. The two countries in Europe with the lowest corporate transparency ratings from OpenCorporates are not Jersey and Guernsey, they’re Austria and Spain. Sadly, mainland UK has form too.

The current government, like its predecessors, has committed to ensuring that British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies adopt the highest standards of transparency: public beneficial ownership registers. But, since 2018, progress has been painfully slow — and slowed further by a decision from the Court of Justice of the EU that prompted some member countries to close access to their registers.

What’s urgently needed is a way to accelerate beneficial ownership registers — everywhere. And we shouldn’t stop there. If you’re incorporating a UK company, then the directors, beneficial owners and accounts are all public. Why accept lesser standards for foreign companies doing business here? It’s in the interests of most countries for corporate secrecy to end. The reason that progress has been so hard is paradoxical: the more countries end corporate secrecy, the more valuable secrecy becomes and the greater the incentive on other countries to maintain it. And that’s where the bad actors flock.

This kind of problem has been solved before. In 2010, the US passed its Fatca law, with a simple concept: banks all over the world could voluntarily report US account holders to the IRS. They weren’t required to but those that didn’t would be subject to a 30 per cent US withholding tax. Now almost every country in the world automatically reports bank accounts to account holders’ home tax authority, with over €12tn of accounts reported every year.

A similar remedy could work today with our proposed “transparency levy”: 10 per cent applied by the UK to financial payments to “undisclosed companies” — those that don’t publish details of their directors, shareholders, beneficial owners and accounts. Undisclosed companies would be excluded from public procurement, too.

For many companies across the world, this would be irrelevant since they already publish this information in a home country corporate register. The critical element is that companies from countries without open registers could voluntarily publish their information at Companies House.

I doubt many would actually pay the levy. But the threat would end corporate secrecy for all companies doing business with the UK. This simple innovation could transform corporate transparency worldwide.

One obvious criticism is that the transparency levy could deter companies from transacting with the UK. This, however, is implausible. Legitimate businesses don’t need to hide their ownership. The cost of compliance would be extremely low (far less than Fatca). And I’m not aware of a single company that fled the UK when it introduced an open beneficial ownership register.

The transparency levy could be initially adopted by the UK alone, or together with other countries. Others could follow when ready, either creating their own system or simply cross-referencing Companies House.

Once a critical mass of countries started applying the levy, corporate secrecy would be a thing of the past. Instead of a race to the bottom, we’d have a “race to the top”. Offshore financial centres — and everybody else — would open up corporate registers in their own interests, so that none of their companies were subject to the levy.

The new foreign secretary, David Lammy, says he wants to make the UK the “anti-corruption capital of the world”. This is one way to do it.