FirstFT: Choice day in America

Good morning and welcome again to FirstFT. In the present day we’re overlaying:

After a tumultuous marketing campaign that has seen two assassination makes an attempt, a candidate withdraw and months of deadlocked polls, we have now lastly made it to voting day.

After getting into the race for the White Home solely in July after President Joe Biden withdrew, Kamala Harris made her closing pitch to voters outdoors the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork in Pennsylvania. She gave voters an upbeat message and referred to as on them to again her “fresh start” for America.

Donald Trump was additionally in Pennsylvania, the largest prize of the seven swing states, on the ultimate day of campaigning the place he centered on his key themes of the economic system and immigration. He promised supporters in Pittsburgh a brand new “golden age” earlier than ending his marketing campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at 2am.

Each candidates revealed last-minute endorsements to cheering supporters. Harris was backed by rapper Fats Joe, whose dad and mom are of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. He referred to as on Latinos to vote for Harris.

Trump, in the meantime, was backed by podcaster Joe Rogan, who has a big, younger male following, and Fox Information host Megyn Kelly on the Pittsburgh rally.

Within the closing days of campaigning the Harris camp has been lifted by polling that implies help from late-breaking undecided voters, significantly ladies who’ve been flocking to her and the message on reproductive rights. Trump, then again, has tapped into male anxieties and grievances to construct up a powerful lead amongst male voters.

What to look out for as outcomes are available in: Anticipate an extended night. Polls will begin closing at 6pm Jap time (11pm GMT), with the final polls closing at midnight ET in Alaska. Information businesses will mission outcomes for every state, not only for the presidency but additionally for races within the Home of Representatives and Senate. The winner wants 270 of the 538 electoral faculty votes to clinch the presidency. The FT shall be following the outcomes as they’re introduced on this dwell map.

However we might not have a transparent outcome for a number of days. Every of the swing states counts votes at totally different speeds, with Arizona, as an illustration, estimating it might take 10 to 13 days to report full outcomes. Razor-thin margins might result in recounts, and authorized challenges might drag out the method. Simply after midnight native time, the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, turned the primary to declare outcomes, with Trump profitable three votes and Harris profitable three.

Be sure you are signed up to obtain our US election publication, with editions each in the present day and tomorrow.

And right here is extra evaluation, together with on how authorities are braced for the prospect of civil unrest, the company winners and losers and Mohamed El-Erian on the 5 essential financial areas for the incoming president.

Right here’s what else we’re watching in the present day:

• Outcomes: Apollo International, Ferrari, Burger King proprietor Restaurant Manufacturers and commodities group ADM report outcomes.

5 extra high tales

1. Boeing employees have voted by 59 per cent to help an improved pay supply and finish their strike. The economic motion, which started on September 13, has value Boeing an estimated $50mn a day and halted manufacturing of the 737 Max at Boeing’s Washington factories. Right here’s extra on the phrases of the deal.

2. Shares in Palantir Applied sciences surged as a lot as 15 per cent in after-hours buying and selling yesterday as Peter Thiel’s knowledge analytics group reported report quarterly revenue and raised its income forecast, citing excessive demand for its synthetic intelligence software program. Learn the total story.

3. Ukrainian officers stated yesterday that their forces had fired at North Korean troopers for the primary time because the latter’s deployment by Russia to its western Kursk area. The clashes mark the primary direct intervention by a international military since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022. We have now extra updates.

4. Taiwan’s hovering vitality costs and rising outages are affecting TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker. Following a collection of value will increase, the corporate now expects to pay extra for energy in its dwelling nation than anyplace else. Right here’s how Taiwan’s shaky vitality transition is straining its business.

5. Lawsuits over choices taken by earlier governments in Argentina, from expropriations to modifications to bond funds, are winding their method by way of courts within the US and Europe, and plaintiffs are piling strain on the federal government of Javier Milei to barter. Billions of {dollars} in damages are at stake and will complicate the president’s makes an attempt to repair the nation’s struggling economic system.

The Huge Learn

Over the previous three years, Europe’s largest economic system has slowly however steadily sunk into disaster. Germany has seen no significant quarterly actual GDP progress since late 2021, and annual GDP is poised to shrink for the second 12 months in a row, with the automobile, chemical compounds and engineering sectors all in a stoop. What is going on proper now could be “unprecedented”, one analyst stated, and “of a completely different order of magnitude” from earlier crises.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Israel unbound: Buoyed by navy beneficial properties, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now desires to dismantle Iran’s forces throughout the Center East and reshape the area.

• Chinese language property: After a greater than three-year slowdown, there are some indicators of life within the nation’s actual property market. However interviews in six cities present there are lingering doubts about its longer-term prospects.

• Commerce coverage: Politicians attain simply for tariffs, however issues corresponding to local weather change and inequality have more practical however much less fashionable options, writes economist Minouche Shafik.

Chart of the day

The frenzied contest between Trump and Harris, and Joe Biden earlier than her, has generated reams of information, shedding mild on US public opinion and voter attitudes on all the things from the economic system and international coverage to the candidates’ character. Listed here are seven charts which have outlined the 2024 presidential election.

Take a break from the information

In tribute to Quincy Jones, the legendary US musician and producer whose loss of life was introduced yesterday, we’re sharing an interview from 2012. Jones talked about his work with a few of the hottest artists of the twentieth century, together with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, and revealed how he learnt cockney rhyming slang from the actor Michael Caine.