Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, October 20th, and this is your F.T. News briefing.

Stocks slid yesterday as the state of a US fiscal stimulus package remains uncertain and one of the world's

largest independent oil producers makes a huge bet on US shale.

Plus Chinese companies are rushing into the semiconductor industry,

but is the influx enough to offset tech pressure from the United States?

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start U-Day. Yesterday, started off with a lot of

yesterday started off with a lot of optimism.

China's economy expanded 4.9% year on year in the third quarter.

That figure was lower than the 5.5% GDP expectations,

but it was still a sign that things are moving in the right direction for China.

And it was a sign that economies can recover from the pandemic if a country can get the virus

under control.

But over the course of Monday the shine from China's

solid GDP numbers wore off and investors started to focus on some less than

stellar news. The S&P 500 dropped a little more than 1.5% yesterday and the NASDAQ composite about the same.

It was the fourth fall in the past five days.

Higher coronavirus cases in the US and Europe have made many people nervous with new lockdown restrictions

sweeping through Europe. Plus the clock keeps ticking on a US fiscal stimulus

deadline set by Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi said a deal needs to be

struck by the end of today in order for it to be passed by the US presidential

election, which is just two weeks away. A Democratic congressional aide said

yesterday that negotiating teams for Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Stephen Manutian were working around the clock to producer is taking a gamble.

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