The daily business briefing: November 1, 2021

1. Barclays CEO steps down after inquiry into relationship with Epstein

Barclays said Monday that its CEO, Jes Staley, would step down immediately after an inquiry by British regulators into his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 after being accused of sex trafficking of underage girls. Barclays disclosed the investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority. The bank was informed Friday about the regulators' preliminary conclusions. "In view of those conclusions, and Mr. Staley's intention to contest them, the board [of Barclays] and Mr. Staley have agreed that he will step down," Barclays said in its statement on Monday. Staley said he regretted his relationship with Epstein. "Obviously, I thought I knew him well and I didn't," he said.

CNN The New York Times

2. Roblox comes back online after 3-day outage

Roblox came back online late Sunday after three days of disruptions for millions of players who use its game and related website. The popular game-creating platform started having problems Thursday night. Roblox said then it was "working hard to get things back to normal," but the problems persisted. The company tweeted Sunday it had pinpointed the root cause and had a solution. Service was restored hours later. The company told The Verge the problem was due to an internal issue and not an "external intrusion" by hackers. Roblox also said the outage had nothing to do with a Chipotle promotion involving $1 million worth of free burritos, which some users had noted went live just before the Halloween weekend glitch.

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The Verge CNBC

3. American Airlines cancels hundreds of flights

American Airlines canceled 634 flights on Sunday, bringing its total cancellations since Friday to more than 1,500. The company blamed bad weather and staffing shortages. As they struggle to rebuild their staffs now that travel is bouncing back, some airlines have faced sporadic service disruptions. American said it expected 1,800 flight attendants to return from leave on Monday, with more coming back to work Dec. 1. Airlines offered buyouts and early retirement in early 2020 to cut costs as the coronavirus pandemic caused a sharp decrease in air travel. Southwest had a similar crunch over a weekend earlier in October, blaming its disruptions on air traffic control problems, bad weather, and limited staff availability in Florida.

CNN

4. China factory activity contracted in October

China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country's manufacturing activity contracted in October for a second straight month. China's official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.2 in October, down from 49.6 in September as materials and power shortages hampered factories. Analysts have warned that the problems could continue, slowing production further. Slowing demand was also a factor, National Bureau of Statistics economist Zhao Qinghe said Sunday. Since September, local governments have forced factories to reduce or pause production as officials tightened power supplies to meet energy consumption targets set by Beijing, which is aiming for a carbon emissions peak by 2030.

The Associated Press

5. Stock futures rise ahead of more earnings, Fed meeting

U.S. stock index futures rose early Monday ahead of the first trading day of November and another week of corporate earnings. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up by 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained nearly 0.4 percent. In addition to the next wave of earnings reports, investors this week will be watching the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting starting Tuesday. The central bank is expected to announce that it will start tapering its economy-boosting $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, aiming to end the program by mid-2022. The Fed's remarks on rising prices also could affect markets.

CNBC