Quartz Daily Brief—Asia edition—Twitter results, Ebola in the US, Apple Pay fightback, wine production

What to watch for today

#Earnings. Twitter reports its latest set of quarterly results—a day before its social networking rival Facebook, whose shares it generally has underperformed—as both look to grow their user bases and engagement metrics. Analysts are expecting earnings per share of 1 cent, on revenue of around $350 million.

After a busy day in democracy… Look for stocks and currencies to react to Sunday’s multiple elections. Brazilians were choosing between populist president Dilma Rousseff and her pro-business challenger, Aécio Neves, in a runoff vote. Tunisia’s crowded election tested its new, post-Arab Spring democracy. The party of outgoing Uruguayan president Jose Mujica was leading polls there. And Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko’s party looked likely to dominate parliamentary elections.

Global economic data. A day after the European Central Bank reported 25 banks in the bloc failed a stress test, an ECB official speaks in Madrid. Germany’s IFO institute releases a much-watched monthly economic indicator, while investors also will be looking to the latest Japanese retail sales and pending home sales in the US.

Ebola monitoring dilemma. The governors of New York and New Jersey have ordered quarantines for health workers returning from West Africa. But now the Obama administration, eager to develop nationwide practices, is pressuring state-level officials to reconsider. There are no signs yet they’ll back down, though.

Over the weekend

Some European banks need more capital. Twenty-five banks in Europe failed the ECB’s latest stress tests, the fourth time that euro zone authorities have assessed the health of the continent’s financial institutions. Among those with work still left to do, banks in Italy need to raise the most capital to bring their balance sheets up to scratch.

Retailers switch off Apple Pay. Wal-Mart, CVS, and Best Buy are among the retailers that have stopped allowing iPhone users to pay with Apple’s new service in their stores. The reason: they they have their own e-payments app, CurrentC, which is slated for launch next year. Unlike Apple Pay, no bank currently supports CurrentC.

Rates are now so low, the IMF said enough. The International Monetary Fund introduced a floor of 0.05% for the interest rate on special drawing rights, its own currency that it pays to lending nations. The return on the SDR—a weighted average of euros, yen, dollars, and the pound—was threatening to turn negative due to the huge amount of global monetary easing.

A boat accident in Zambia killed 23 children. A total of 26 people drowned when their boat capsized in Lake Kariba, en route to a school across the lake where the passengers planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their country’s independence from Britain. Authorities blamed the accident on overloading—the boat was carrying 20 more people than its legal capacity.

Quartz obsession interlude

Jason Karaian on Europe stress-testing its banks. Again. “Embarrassed by three previous tests that proved far too tame, European banking regulators, for the better part of a year, have been poring over balance sheets, loan portfolios, and business plans in unprecedented detail. This time, banks that are judged too optimistic in valuing their assets or too complacent in building buffers to shield themselves from future turmoil will not escape the regulators’ wrath.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

Italy and Spanish wine harvests have been hit by bad weather. Is it climate change?

If you want to get ahead, contain your stress. Nine out of 10 top performers are skilled at doing so.

Education is the Civil Rights movement of our era. Americans need better access to higher ed.

Female diplomats are in the ascendancy. The last bastion of sexism in public diplomacy.

Surprising discoveries

NASA has a new SoundCloud page. These are our favorite clips.

New York real estate is a good deal. At least compared to Silicon Valley.

Steve Ballmer’s sports team purchase will be subsidized. Ah, the tax benefits of passion projects.

Ancient Brits had less gum disease than modern ones. No jokes, please.

Click here for more surprising discoveries on Quartz.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, new payment apps, and the results of your ECB stress test to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.

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Quartz Daily Brief—Asia edition—Twitter results, Ebola in the US, Apple Pay fightback, wine production