1. Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe will reject calls for an interest rate cut in November in a speech today according to economists from Citi, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. The AFR noted that market pricing for a reduction to 0.10% puts the likelihood of a cut in the range of 40-70%.

2. First Lady Melania Trump said that her and President Donald Trump's son Barron tested positive for the Coronavirus following positive diagnoses for both of his parents. Following an initial negative result for Barron, the First Lady explained in a White House blog post, "I couldn’t help but think “what about tomorrow or the next day?”. My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms... He has since tested negative."

3. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia is predicting that 41% of those who reach retirement age in 2023 will be fully self-funded, down from a previous estimate of 43% or about 5,000 people relying on a partial or full pension according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald.

4. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated that a Coronavirus stimulus deal between Democrats and Republicans is unlikely to be reached in the coming weeks. "At this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are and the level of detail, but we're going to try to continue to work through these issues," Mnuchin said.

5. The major indexes in the US have closed down on the third day of the trading week. The Dow Jones was 165.81 points or 0.58% lower at the end of the session on 28514.00, the S&P 500 moved down 23.26 points or 0.66% to 3488.67 and the Nasdaq lifted 95.17 points or 0.80% to 11,768.73.