Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Greek Aid Payment Call Won’t Be Made Next Week, EU Official Says. Euro-area finance ministers may not make a decision on unlocking funds for Greece until late November as they await a full report on the country’s compliance with the terms of its bailout, a European Union official said.
  Finance chiefs won’t make the call to release 31.5 billion euros ($40.1 billion) of aid for Greece that has been frozen since June when they meet in Brussels on Nov. 12, the official said today on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are private. Ministers will await a final report from the so-called troika that oversees euro-area bailouts on Greece’s efforts to meet the conditions of its second bailout since 2010 before taking action, the official said. That report isn’t finished yet, the official said, and while a preliminary version may be available for the Nov. 12 meeting, that won’t be enough for ministers to base their decision on.
• Weidmann Shapes ECB Even in Defeat as Spain Resists Rescue. Jens Weidmann might not be as defeated as it seems. While the European Central Bank pushed ahead with its bond- purchase plan over the Bundesbank president’s objections, the conditions attached are giving Spain second thoughts about applying for the program. Economists and central bank officials say those conditions were partly a response to Weidmann’s opposition, showing that even in his apparent isolation on the ECB council, he is still shaping policy. Conditionality “was devised to appease the traditional Bundesbank allies” like the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg, said former ECB chief economist Juergen Stark. “So Weidmann’s influence may still be working on a more subtle level.”
• ECB Holds Rates as Economy Worsens, Spain Resists Aid Request. The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold today as the economic outlook worsens and Spain resists asking for a bailout that would open the door to ECB bond purchases. Policy makers meeting in Frankfurt left the benchmark rate at its historic low of 0.75 percent, as predicted by 62 of 63 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. One forecast a cut to 0.5 percent. ECB President Mario Draghi will brief reporters on the decision at 2:30 p.m.
• Greek Unemployment Rate Increases as Recession Deepens. Greece’s jobless rate climbed to more than a quarter of the workforce in August, extending its record high as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pushed through more austerity measures linked to the country’s bailouts. The rate rose to 25.4 percent from a revised 24.8 percent in July, the Athens-based Hellenic Statistical Authority said in an e-mailed statement today. That’s the highest since the agency began publishing monthly data in 2004. The recession and deepening labor slump have been exacerbated by spending cuts and tax increases imposed to trim a budget deficit that was more than five times the euro-area limit in 2009. Violence flared outside the parliament yesterday after more than 50,000 protesters ringed the building as lawmakers debated an austerity bill, approved in the early hours of this morning, with more measures needed to keep rescue loans from the euro area and the International Monetary Fund flowing.
• European Stocks Drop as Carmakers Slide. European (SXXP) stocks fell, extending yesterday’s biggest decline in two weeks, as a selloff in auto manufacturers overshadowed results from Swiss Re Ltd. and Hermes International (RMS) SCA that beat analysts’ estimates. PSA Peugeot Citroen SA (UG) and Valeo SA (FR) both lost more than 4 percent as analysts downgraded their shares.
• U.S. Jobless Claims Fall as Storm Starts to Affect Data. Fewer Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment insurance last week as the effects of Hurricane Sandy started to show up.
• Any release of copper stockpiles from bonded warehouses in China due to rising financing costs will probably be limited, Barclays Plc said. Some stockpiles in the warehouses, which are effectively locked up to obtain financing, may be released as exports because the domestic market is weak and borrowers need to raise cash to repay banks, Sijin Cheng, a Barclays analyst, said in a report today. Copper stockpiles in China's bonded warehouses climbed to a record 700,000 metric tons, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Imports of refined metal jumped 17% in September from the month before, customs data show. A rise in bonded inventories may indicate an increase in financing deals in addition to a weaker Chinese market, according to Barclays.
• Goldman Sachs(GS) is "increasingly cautious" about copper in the short term because of the so-called fiscal cliff facing the U.S. "Our economists believe the markets may be required to 'incentivize' a 'fiscal cliff' bargain," Max Layton, an analyst at Goldman in London, said today. Refined copper was in surplus for the past few weeks and copper stockpiles in bonded warehouses in China have risen to a record high of 700,000 metric tons, according to the report. 
• Obama Finds What’s Good for GM Not So Good for Taxpayers. The bailout of General Motors Co. (GM) played an important role in the re-election of President Barack Obama, who stumped on the issue in Midwestern swing states. Now comes the hard part: unloading the government’s stake, probably at a big loss. GM received $51 billion from the U.S. Treasury in 2009. Taxpayers have recouped $24 billion and still own 32 percent of the company. The problem is that GM shares are trading at less than half the price the government said it needs to break even. Selling the shares was politically precarious before the election because that would have locked in a loss -- $14 billion at yesterday’s closing price. Now that the election is over, cutting the stake could be good for GM’s image and its stock.\
• Iran to China Threaten Obama’s Second-Term Promises.

Barron's: 

• Apple(AAPL): Oppenheimer Pounds Table; ‘Legitimate’ Issues Will Pass.

CNBC: 

• Sandy-Torn Northeast Deals With 200,000 New Outages. Utility crews worked to restore power to an additional 200,000 customers in the New York area after a nor'easter blasted the region that's still trying to recover from Super Storm Sandy. 
• Europe’s Paymaster Heading for Recession: Economists. A stream of weak economic figures from Germany is prompting economists to predict that the country is fast approaching a recession — and the vortex of the euro zone’s economic crisis. Figures released on Thursday showed exports in September fell at their fastest pace since December 2011 and on Tuesday, data revealed that manufacturing and services activity shrunk for the sixth consecutive month in October. Industrial production figures released on Wednesday revealed a 1.8 percent fall in September from August, well below expectations of a 0.7 percent decline.
• Europe’s New Austerity: Corporate Cutbacks. Earnings season in the euro zone has been marked with a raft of job cut announcements, demonstrating how the sovereign debt crisis is affecting the private sector and signaling more trouble ahead for the region.
• Two-Tier Global Housing Market Could Lead to Bubble: Goldman. A two-tier housing market amongst developed economies has sprung up as some countries have rebounded faster from the global financial crisis than others, according to new research by Goldman Sachs, which warns the situation could lead to several bubbles.

Zero Hedge: 

• Europe's Scariest Chart Hits Peak Scariness Levels, And Rising. 
• Chart Of The Day: When $0.99 Becomes Unaffordable, We Have A Problem. (graph)
• We Aren't In Kansas Anymore.

Business Insider: 

• China Is Relentlessly Messing With Japan In The East China Sea.

CNN:

• First On CNN:  Iranian Jets Fire on U.S. Drone. Two Iranian Su-25 fighter jets fired on an unarmed U.S. Air Force Predator drone in the Persian Gulf last week, CNN has learned. The incident raises fresh concerns within the Obama administration about Iranian military aggression in crucial Gulf oil shipping lanes. The drone was in international airspace east of Kuwait, U.S. officials said, adding it was engaged in routine maritime surveillance. Although the drone was not hit, the Pentagon is concerned. Two U.S. officials explained the jets were part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps force, which has been more confrontational than regular Iranian military forces. The Obama administration did not disclose the incident, which occurred just days before the presidential election on November 1, but three senior officials confirmed the details to CNN.

Financial Times:

• Eurozone faces brinkmanship on Greece. Eurozone leaders face a new round of brinkmanship over Greece’s €174bn bailout after international lenders failed to bridge differences on how to reduce Athens’ burgeoning debt levels, pushing the country perilously close to defaulting on a €5bn debt payment due next week.

Telegraph: 

• Who will stop the Sado-Monetarists as jobless youth hits 58pc in Greece?
• Merkel warns Britain against European Union exit. Germany's Angela Merkel on Wednesday warned Britain not to turn its back on Europe and urged its Prime Minister David Cameron to work with her to avoid deadlock at European Union budget talks later this month.

Financial Times Deutschland:

• German Economy Ministry notes demand from Germany and from outside is weakening, citing an analysis by the ministry. The ministry sees a weaker economy in the "winter half year." The weaker economy is making itself increasingly felt at the job market, the ministry said.

Handelsblatt:

• The UK Seeks Veto in European Banking Athority. The UK wants veto rights on the European Banking Authority to ensure that the country won't be overruled by the ECB on the EBA's board, citing EU diplomats.