Image source, Getty Images

Dubai's Emirates airline has said its net profit surged 65% in the first half of the financial year to $849m (£552m) thanks to lower fuel costs and higher passenger numbers. The airline, the largest in the Middle East says fuel prices were 41% lower than a year earlier, while passenger numbers jumped 10% to 25.7 million in the six-months to the end of September. 

Some economic journalists are having some fun ahead of the Bank of England's inflation report later. 

If the quarterly inflation report is your thing. You can watch the press conference with Bank of England governor Mark Carney and his team live from 12:45 (GMT). 

The European Commission has released its latest economic forecasts for the individual member states of the EU. It estimates that the UK economy will continue to see strong growth in the near future, forecasting growth of 2.5% this year, then 2.4% in 2016 and 2.2% in 2017. At the other end of the spectrum Greece is going to be in recession for the next two years the Commission says., external It says the debt laden country will see its economy contract by 1.4 this year, then 1.3% in 2016. But then it expects Greece to grow by a fairly huge 2.7%! 

Image source, Getty Images

Prime Minister David Cameron's wish list on EU reform will be unveiled next week, according to Reuters citing Europe Minister David Lidington. His letter to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, explaining Britain's planned renegotiation of ties with the EU will seek to make clearer exactly what he thinks Britain wants. Britain plans a vote on EU membership before 2017. All 28 EU leaders will discuss Britain's plans in a December summit. UK Chancellor George Osborne has just visited Berlin, speaking to key German figures, hoping to persuade them to allow - amongst other things - greater protection for Britain against the failure of foreign banks. 

The European Banking Authority has announced its 2016 EU-wide stress test will be launched at the end of February 2016. The stress tests will cover 70% of Europe's banking industry and the results will be published sometime in the third quarter of 2016.

Thomas Cook shares have fallen in reaction to the news that flights between Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and the UK have been suspended.

Shares in the travel firm dropped nearly 5% in early trade.

Thomas Cook has cancelled its flight and holiday programme to Sharm el-Sheikh until 12 November.

However, there has been little reaction among airline shares. British Airways owner IAG is down 0.2% while Easyjet has edged up 0.1%.

The FTSE 100 index is down 36 points, or 0.5%, at 6,390.99.

Shares in drugs firm AstraZeneca are up over 3% after the company raised its full-year forecasts for revenue and earnings.

You can watch how global stock markets and currencies are performing on the BBC Business Market Data site.

OK, so in order to be fair to the Volkswagen Group its UK sales presented a bit of a mixed bag for the month of October according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)., external Why a mixed bag? Some of its divisions saw sales rise, while others fell. VW sales were not the worst performing but they have reversed previous months' sales growth - most likely as a result of the emissions scandal, chief executive Mike Hawes told the BBC earlier.

So in no particular order:

VW sales were down 9.8% 

Audi sales were up 2.2%

Seat sales were down 32.2% 

Skoda sales were down 3%

Porsche sales were up 20%

Bentley sales were up 29%

What that gives you in terms of a sales figure for all VW brands is anyone's guess.  Also, car sales tend to spike in September because of the release of new registration numbers, so sales in October can often compare unfavourably. Just a note we're comparing October with September not making year-on-year comparisons.

Image source, Getty Images

New car registrations in Britain see a 1.1% decline in October following period of "phenomenal record growth", says car industry body the SMMT., external

Image source, Getty Images

Zurich Insurance Group posted a drop of 79% in third-quarter net profit to $207m, compared with the same period last year. Zurich last month issued a profit warning for the period to the three months to the end of September. Chief exec Martin Senn said, external: "In closing, we have the right actions underway to address the issues in our GI [general insurance] business, and I am confident we will achieve or exceed each of our three targets in 2016". The company added that the poor result was due to factors including a $275m loss related to the warehouse "explosions in Tianjin and other large losses". It added that the weakening of currencies in Latin American and Europe also affected them during the quarter. 

BBC 5Live

"Overall what we are seeing in the [car] market is a stabilisation," Mike Hawes, chief executive of car industry body SMMT said. The SMMT has figures out soon on how the UK car market is doing. He told Wake Up To Money that when the figures are out, we should expect them to show that the entire market is marginally down for the first time in 43 months, despite more cars being registered this year than at any other time in history, Mr Hawes adds. He says it would be a result of the overall car market slowdown, as well as the reports of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

The competition for this year's best Christmas advert is hotting up already. And Duracell have thrown the kitchen sink at theirs.

Image source, Getty Images

Halifax bank's latest house price index, external says average annual house prices have hit a record high of £205,240. In the year to October average property values rose 9.7%  up from from 8.6% a month earlier. That's as house prices rose 1.1% month-on-month.

Image source, Getty Images

Tate & Lyle reported that operating profit increased to £70m for the six months to September, up from £63m over the same period last year. The British food ingredients specialist, famous for its sugar and sweeteners,attributed the higher profit, externalto the jump in sales of its "specialty food" ingredients, which were up to £447m, from £426m the year prior. However, overall sales fell to £1.17bn, a drop of 6%. Tate & Lyle is in the process of overhauling its business to focus on higher-margin specialty food ingredients.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

It's become a bit of a game: guessing when the Bank of England will raise interest rates. And most of us appear to be getting it wrong... a lot. An interest rate rise was expected to have occurred by now. Most analysts at the end of 2013 where expecting an interest rate rise by the Summer or Autumn of 2014. It hasn't happened and doesn't look like it will happen any time soon.

Kevin Daley, economist at Goldman Sachs told the Today programme that the big focus of "Super Thursday" will be still be on any guidance over when the Bank will raise interest rates. 

He says he thinks interest rates will rise later next year and that he will be looking for any indication that this is the case. Up to now the Bank has indicated it might raise interest rates in the first half of the year. 

It’s not really domestic economic issues that are influencing policymakers, he says. In terms of growth, the UK economy is a little bit weaker - but not much. The main problem is the overall health of the global economy with the slowdown in China and lower commodity prices giving the Bank of England enough to worry about. 

By way of example, he points out that oil prices are 20% lower than where the Bank expected them to be at this point when it published its inflation report in August. That has an impact on inflation as it keeps it lower for longer. And that means the chances of a rate rise much before June 2016 are pretty slim.

Image source, Getty Images

Adidas sales rose 13% in the nine months to September, compared with the same period last year, to €4.7bn ($5.17bn). The German sports retailer also raised its outlook for full-year sales and profits, after it reported better-than-expected results, external. Its golf business also recovered from a recent slump. It attributed the rise to double-digit growth in Western Europe, North America, China and Latin America. It also said net income increased 17% to €737m. It added that Reebok sales were up 3%, with sales more than doubling in China - where revenue for the company grew by 18%.

BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Should we really care about what happens to our data, and who gets to look at it? Karlin Lillington, a technology journalist with the Irish Times, told the Today programme we should. "If there's no agreement on data transfer right now, which there isn't, we're all kind of floating around in this limbo until something gets decided on how data moves back and forth. In addition to that, there's a big question over whether the US government can demand that a US company, even if its data centre is abroad, hand over information without going through the usual law enforcement routes." Rob Corbet, a partner at Arthur Fox, said that the recent Max Shrems case highlighted a legal "land grab" that was going on by the EC and the US over data protection. "We have a European framework in relation to data protection, and we have countries within Europe who are tasked with imposing those rules, and then we have outside of Europe, in particular the US, which is deemed by Europe not to be an adequate jurisdiction for data privacy."

Image source, Getty Images

Morrisons supermarket has reported like-for-like sales were 2.6% lower in the three months to the end of September. The figures is excluding fuel and strips out sales at newly opened stores. That's an improvement on the same period a year earlier when like-for-like sales were down 6.3%. The supermarket says it expects profits to be higher in the second half of the year, which will include Christmas and Easter shopping.

Image source, Getty Images

More on Toyota's results: The Japanese automaker says strong sales, cost cuts and a favorable exchange rate all contributed to its 11% rise in first half profits, external. Sales for in its second quarter rose 8% to 7.1 trillion yen ($58.5 billion). Toyota has also maintained its full year profit forecast at 2.25 trillion yen.