Morning Brief, Monday 5 October 2026

1. A plague scare in Siberia

Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation in Russia's Irkutsk region after the death of a 28-year-old laboratory worker at the regional Anti-Plague Institute in Shelekhov, early on 2 October. According to the exiled outlet Lyudi Baikala and pro-Kremlin channel REN TV, she told doctors she had broken a test tube containing live bacteria. The head of neighbouring Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, said she had died of an unspecified form of plague, while Russia's health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, speaks only of "pneumonia of unknown etiology" and calls the situation "stable". Of the 197 contacts identified, none had shown symptoms and tests were negative, according to local authorities. Some reports about the case have been removed, and mass events in the region were cancelled.

2. Brazil's first round
Brazilians voted on Sunday in the first round of the presidential election between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro. A candidate needs more than 50% of valid votes to win outright; otherwise the top two meet in a runoff on 25 October. The final Datafolha poll, published on Saturday, had Lula at 45% of valid votes and Flávio Bolsonaro at 42%, with a runoff at 47% to 46%.

3. A weak jobs report, and yields that won't fall

The US economy added just 29,000 jobs in September, against 84,000 expected, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. Revisions cut 60,000 jobs from July and August, and unemployment rose to 4.2%, partly because more people returned to the labour force. Traders trimmed bets on a Fed rate hike in October. Yet the bond market barely blinked: the 10-year Treasury yield first fell to 5.18%, then closed up about 5 basis points at 5.28%, after reaching its highest level since 2002 earlier in the week. The 30-year ended at 5.63%.

4. Stocks: a record Nasdaq, a nervous Europe

Friday's jobs data lifted Wall Street: the S&P 500 rose 0.73% to 7,722.72, though it ended the week slightly lower, and the Nasdaq Composite closed at a record 27,190.86. Europe had a harder week, as higher oil prices and rising sovereign borrowing costs weighed on risk appetite: the STOXX Europe 600 lost 1.14%, France's CAC 40 fell 2.24%, and Italy's FTSE MIB 2.67%, according to T. Rowe Price.

5. Oil eases, gold slides

Brent settled at $102.25 a barrel on Friday and WTI fell 1.9% to $91.11, after the Group of Seven agreed to consider releasing up to 100 million barrels of emergency oil and diesel reserves to ease fuel costs. European Union countries also discussed a French proposal to release diesel stocks, Reuters reported. Gold, meanwhile, fell for a second straight week, losing 3.6% to settle at $4,162.30 an ounce on the December contract, as rising Treasury yields and a firm dollar reduced its appeal.