Happy Spook-day everyone! Hope you’re Halloween was filled with devilish deeds and horrific nightmares!

• Markets not scared, climb again
  The markets were not scared this Halloween and had a slow yet positive day. The Dow climbed 144 points, FTSE100 was up 85 points, CAC40 went up 80 points and the DAX climbed 118. The IBEX also worked up a 293 point addition but the TSX lost 93 points and the Nikkei also recorded a minus of a rather large 452 points. However, oil rose slightly, back up to around $65/barrel. This capped off a month of volatility, the most erratic month on Wall Street in 24 years, with major losses recorded for the month. 

• EU to deliver aid to Congo
  As a truce remained in place in Congo today, France and England announced an initiative on behalf of the EU to secure peace in Congo and may fly in food for tens of thousands soon. Javier Solana made the announcement about possible food aid in affected regions while the UK and France dispatched their foreign ministers, David Milliband and Bernard Kouchner respectively, on a mission to Congo. However, EU diplomats have said any European involvement in the conflict would be merely humanitarian rather than military. At least the world took notice and made a first step.

• Obama goes into final weekend with momentum
  Obama entered the final weekend of the elections with news that his appearance on the Daily Show with John Stewart had set a new audience record. 3.6 million viewers on average turned in to see Obama’s comedic chops, beating the show’s previous record of 3.0 million viewers, a record set earlier this month when Michelle Obama appeared on the show. Public interest in the future First Family appears to be increasing. The Clinton family, Al Gore, Joe Biden and other Democratic heavyweights are also scheduled to appear on the trail this weekend in the hotly contended toss-up states. Further, the campaign has announced it is buying airtime in quite a few “red” states like Georgia and Arizona, McCain’s own home state, forcing him to play defense and spread his resources thin. Obama also warned that things will get nasty in the next four days and that this election is far from over, with Al Gore complementing him by adding: “Take it from me, every vote matters”. 

• DSi coming next summer
  Nintendo, the Japanese video game manufacturer, has said it will most likely launch the DSi, a new version of the popular handheld DS video game player, sometime in the summer of 2009 to its oversees markets. Having handily beat Sony’s PSP and PS3 in sales with the DS and Wii console, Nintendo is looking capitalize on its momentum as DS sales have started to flatline. 

• Hubble hobbling no more
  The Hubble telescope has once again begun taking pictures of similar quality as it did before it entered sleep-mode last month. A recent picture of a pair of galaxies 450 million light years away provided enough proof for NASA scientists to be hopeful of Hubble’s ability to continue its operations at full efficiency until its scheduled replacement, the James Webb Telescope, will be launched in 2013.