as us voters head to the polls on tuesday, we look at how economies and businesses in asia are preparing. plus, it's a big week for china, as top lawmakers gear up to sign off on stimulus measures for the world's number—two economy. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. the countdown is nearly over, with americans heading to the ballot box on tuesday to cast their vote for the next president. many polls have shown it to be a tight race between the two candidates — former president donald trump for the republican party, and vice president kamala harris for the democratic party.

constance hunter. a trump victory, combined with enough congressional votes, would give him more power to change the way that the us deals with asia. namely, tariffs on china, but tariffs also across the world. a harris victory would be much more a continuation of what we have seen, with greater engagement with asia. and, of course, some guardrails around that relationship with china. help us understand how intertwined the economies are. there is very strong relationship. the us imports a great dealfrom china relationship. the us imports a great deal from china and relationship. the us imports a great dealfrom china and china imports a fairamount great dealfrom china and china imports a fair amount from the united states. there is a good bilateral trade relationship and there is a trade relationship through third—party countries, whether it is vietnam or other countries. so for all the talk

of decoupling, when you actually look at the trade relationship that includes those third—party countries, there has not really been any decoupling. so it is still a very strong trade relationship. and of course, a tariff of any significance is going to not only hamper that trade relationship, but increase inflation in the us and probably force the chinese to devalue... that would be one of the only courses of action they could take to keep goods competitive.— competitive. that would certainly _ competitive. that would certainly change - competitive. that would certainly change things. i there are a number of american businesses that operate in china or are looking to invest in china. will the outcome of the election be playing on their minds as well? i would imagine, but i also think a lot of that has to do with the way china treats foreign investors. i think that's certainly a much biggerfactor. and let's not forget these polls are extremely close. and there are a lot of data points which suggest they're not polling necessarily all of the voters that are going to matter.

so female turnout is much more important in this election because healthcare rights are on the ballot for women. and what you're seeing is a real surge in voting of women. more than past elections, and in greater numbers than male voters. so i think there could be some votes in harris's favourite when we get to telling of the votes on election night and the days after. shares of former president's media company surged after plunging over 40% in the last three trading sessions. trump media's stock has been highly volatile as traders have used it as a kind of barometer for his perceived real election chances. the bbc�*s north america corresponded has more from new york. america corresponded has more from new york-— from new york. shares of truth social's parent _ from new york. shares of truth social's parent company - from new york. shares of truth social's parent company have . social's parent company have been highly volatile in recent

weeks with trading often viewed as a proxy for donald trump's potential electoral success and remain so on monday, closing above 12% to reverse premarket losses. despite the surge on monday, trump media suffered its largest percentage decline last week, but the stock is still up more than 100% over the past month. some analysts explained the recent plunge as a reaction to the latest poll showing kamala harris gaining ground, resulting in a fade of the so—called trump trade, when markets had been betting on him donald trump victory. others attribute it to short sellers who profit by driving stock markets —— stock prices lower and target overvalued companies. but the indication is the main assets are trump and his political prospects come up with trading detached from its day—to—day business fundamentals. on the stock is majority owned by donald trump and is at risk of high volatility post—election. meanwhile, a judge in

pennsylvania has allowed the tech billionaire elon musk to continue his daily million—dollar giveaway to registered voters in battleground states. the district attorney for the city of philadelphia had argued that the scheme was an illegal lottery and an attempt to influence voters. thejudge, however, gave no reason for his decision not to ban it. mr musk�*s pro—trump action committee says it's given away 16 $1 million prizes, four in the swing state of pennsylvania. you can watch live coverage of the election results as they come in on bbc news and on bbc one and the iplayer in the uk at 2240 gmt on tuesday. and we will bring you a special programme from washington, dc. china is hosting its annual international import expo, where global business and political leaders are gathered in shanghai. the premier said unilateralism and protectionism were on the rise, and china must guard against this by opening up its economy further.

he also said he's confident that the country will hit its growth target for the year. this comes as chinese lawmakers are also gathered for a five—day meeting of the standards committee of the national people's congress, where stimulus measures are set to be announced. this year, the meeting coincides with the us presidential election, and some analysts believe the size of the measures to be announced might depend on the result of the election. we can speak now to alicia garcia—herrero. one could argue that this is the case, given the choice of dates. there's another possibility, and this is even more interesting. it's basically that, and so far, this is what's happening, if you look at what is basically being funnelled away from that mpc. what we know is being discussed at the moment is all about the debt swap. it's not a stimulus package. so the question is, will china perhaps hide behind the us elections to announce mostly a clean—up of its economy,

rather than a big stimulus? and therefore, choose those dates in a way that is not really too negative for the market? that is a possibility as well. because so far, that's all we hear. that swap. from local government financial vehicles, which is hidden debt in china, to either local governments or even the central government. so it's basically covering up china's hidden debt, which is going to happen. but the stimulus, we don't know yet. how different will those measures be, or how it treats debt, depending on how the us us election goes? the debt part has to be done for a number of reasons. first, its financial stability problems, there could be defaults on the local governments. so china has to do that independently of the us elections. however, this is not good news for the market. why? because the market is expecting a growth—enhancing stimulus, meaning consumption—driven.

cleaning up debt will not create any growth. it is very necessary, but it's not growth—enhancing. so i would say this is something china had to do anyway, and this is a good opportunity because the market is not watching. will trump win the elections, i do think they will announce more thanjust cleaning up debt. they will probably come up with some measures to show the market that china can withstand high tariffs, import tariffs from trump. bangladesh has stepped up the repayment of more than $800 million it owes to the indian conglomerate adani power. according to a senior bangladesh officialfrom the power development board, an initial payment of $170 million was issued on monday, after adani reduced the electricity supply to bangladesh by half and threatened to cut it off completely if dhaka didn't settle the debt. corporate india has seen a dismal quarter of earnings betweenjuly dismal quarter of earnings between july and dismal quarter of earnings betweenjuly and september. the between july and september. the oor show betweenjuly and september. the poor show across betweenjuly and september. the poor show across sectors is adding pressure on the equity markets, forcing earnings to

downgrade by brokerages. our report is here to explain what this means for the broader economy. this means for the broader economy-— this means for the broader econom . ,., ~ economy. -- reporter. well, it is the weakness _ economy. -- reporter. well, it is the weakness in _ economy. -- reporter. well, it is the weakness in the - economy. -- reporter. well, it is the weakness in the broaderj is the weakness in the broader economy that is now starting to show up in corporate earnings. so whether it was heavy rain that destroyed crops and in turn affected sales of consumer staple companies or it was we cut spending by the government in infrastructure, that in turn affected companies in the steel, cement, energy or manufacturing and even aviation sector that saw some sort of weakness. and these are companies, top companies from the top in dices. all of them have seen a drag on their earnings. and analysts anticipate this drag and weak earnings to continue in the coming quarter as well. hence there has been a major downgrade as far as owning estimates for these corporate companies are concerned. we

reported last week that 60% of the near 100 companies that it reports on and tracks are seen in earnings estimate downgrade which shows there is an intrinsic slowdown in the economy that is going to continue in the coming quarters as well. and this is also dragging the equity markets down, stocks of all these companies are down from 5% to 18% and it is adding to sell—off in the market that has seen persistent rally in the last few months.— seen persistent rally in the last few months. thanks, from mumbai. australia's _ last few months. thanks, from mumbai. australia's central. mumbai. australia's central bank left its cash rate unchanged on tuesday at 4.35% is widely expected. they did however highlight that the country possible economic outlook was highly uncertain, underlying inflation is still above the central bank's target, but they expected that come down a touch by the end of the year. thank you forjoining me, we will see you again soon.

hey, it's lucy, with the catch up. tonight... four attacks on women in a week in londonderry. who's going to be the new president? and a new local celebrity. first tonight, they've been frozen for eight years, but next year, uni fees are going up. the government says universities are really struggling with money. if you study in england, fees will rise next year from £9,250 a year tojust over £9,500. if you live and study in wales, northern ireland or scotland, fees won't change for now, because

uni fees are devolved. that means each nation's government decides what students should pay. kamala harris and donald trump have been campaigning, in a final push for the white house. these are the seven swing states. they could each be won by either democrats or republicans. michigan's one of them. jordan's there. one of the big issues young people here tell us they're thinking about when deciding who to vote for is the war in the middle east, saying they want to know how the next president is going to end that. other big issues for young people across the states include the cost of living, abortion rights and gun laws. we'll have live coverage from tomorrow night on the bbc news app and iplayer. police are stepping up patrols in londonderry, after four attacks on women there within one week. there have been big concerns recently about violence against women in northern ireland, so police in derry say... we have high—visibility patrols in and around key focused areas, and that will continue over the coming days.

but let's leave you with ten seconds of good company. beau, the 13—year—old cat, has become famous for keeping bus passengers company in leicestershire, but he's now been put on a diet because he's getting too much attention. that's us for tonight. have a good one! hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm tanya arnold. real madrid's carlo ancelotti says no football matches should have been played at the weekend, in the wake of the devastating flooding in the valencia region. manchester is watching — united's new manager takes charge of his penultimate sporting game against city. and former racing driver billy monger tells us how the stars aligned for him to break the ironman record for a double amputee at the world championships.