Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Senators Say Obama Open to Health Law Changes as Talks Continue. Senate Republicans after a meeting at the White House said President Barack Obama is open to changing a tax on medical devices in the future as talks continue about ending a partial government shutdown and raising the debt limit. Obama didn’t rule out repealing the tax, which was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, said Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, an advocate of the tax’s repeal. The president said he was encouraged by Senate Republicans’ efforts on a debt-limit plan, said Senator John McCain. Obama has insisted that any health-law changes occur after the shutdown ends and the debt limit is raised.

• India Factory Output Misses Estimates as Domestic Demand Falters. India’s industrial output rose less than economists estimated in August as consumer spending moderated, adding pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to intensify efforts to revive the economy. Output at factories, utilities and mines advanced 0.6 percent from a year earlier after a revised 2.75 percent climb in the previous month, the Statistics Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi today. The median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 2 percent gain. 

• Europe Stocks Post Weekly Gain Amid U.S. Debt-Deal Signs. European stocks posted a weekly gain, snapping two weeks of losses, as concern over a potential default by the U.S government faded and the nomination of Janet Yellen as the next Federal Reserve chairman signaled the continuation of stimulus. Celesio AG surged 19 percent as McKesson Corp. was said to be in talks to buy a majority stake in the drug wholesaler. Persimmon Plc and Taylor Wimpey Plc led house builders higher as British property prices surged to an 11-year high and Goldman Sachs Groups Inc. predicted further growth. TGS Nopec Geophysical Co. slumped 16 percent after reducing its sales forecast because of delays in getting permits for new surveys. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.6 percent to 311.61 this week, after slipping 1.4 percent in the previous two weeks.

• Comex Suspended Gold Trading for 10 Seconds After Price Slump. CME Group Inc.’s Comex halted trading in December gold futures for about 10 seconds today at 8:42 a.m. New York time, said Damon Leavell, a spokesman for the exchange. The December contract fell about $20 within a minute before trading was suspended, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Leavell declined to comment on the size of the trade that led to the halt. The “stop-logic” mechanism gives traders the opportunity to provide additional liquidity and prevent excessive price movements.

• IEA Sees Oil Supplies Outside OPEC Rising Most Since 1970s. The International Energy Agency estimates that non-OPEC oil producers led by the U.S., Canada and Kazakhstan will bolster supplies next year by the most since the 1970s, undermining the need for OPEC’s crude. Producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase 2014 output by a near-record 1.7 million barrels a day to 56.4 million, the IEA said, boosting its forecasts from a month ago by 300,000 barrels a day. Supply losses in OPEC members Libya and Iraq, which reduced the group’s output to a two-year low, are preventing the new shipments from calming oil prices, the Paris-based adviser to energy-consuming nations said.

Wall Street Journal:

• Noonan: Now Is the Time to Delay ObamaCare. It's not what Americans were promised—or even what Congress enacted.

Fox News:

• Cruz rallies conservatives against ObamaCare ahead of White House talks. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rallied conservatives to keep up the fight to unravel ObamaCare, ahead of a White House meeting where his colleagues were expected to dial back their demands for changes to the health law as part of a possible deal to end the partial government shutdown.

CNBC:

• JPMorgan(JPM) sees some ugly firsts with earnings. (video)

• The president has become too powerful: Jack Welch. (video)

Zero Hedge:

• Wells(WFC) Crippled By Mortgage Pipeline Shutdown: Net Interest Margin Slides, Reserve Release Soars.

• Consumer Confidence Misses Expectations; Slumps To Lowest Since January. (graph)

• The "Hard" Data Doesn't Lie.

• US And European Regulators Probing FX Market Rigging. 

• If We Are In An Economic Recovery, Why Are Major Corporations Firing Thousands?

Business Insider:

• JP Morgan's(JPM) Earnings Confirm That The US Housing Recovery Is In Danger.

10News: 

• Memo uncovered in 10 News Investigation causes concern from terrorism experts. There is heightened concern terrorists may be planning another 9/11 type of attack- even using airplanes again. The 10 News Investigators recently obtained an internal memo that security experts of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association and Federal Air Marshals believe details a terrorist "dry-run" that happened just six weeks ago on a flight from Reagan National Airport to Orlando International Airport.

The Street:

• Greenberg: Fleckenstein to Restart Short Fund. From the looks of this market, you might think Bill Fleckenstein needs to have his head examined for what he's about to do: Restart his short-selling fund, which he shut four years ago. As it turns out, he's one of several ex-short-sellers I've talked to in recent weeks who have said they think the time is right to return. So far, Fleckenstein, who made his name shorting mostly tech companies, but who quit in 2009 to start an opportunistic long-only fund, is the first to go public with his plans.

Reuters:

• Exclusive: U.S. CFTC finishing new, tougher commodity limits rule - sources. The U.S. derivatives market regulator is nearing completion of a new rule for position limits in commodity markets that is in parts tougher than the previous proposal, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan said. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler is rushing to get a revamped rule out before he leaves office in December, said the sources, even while agency lawyers are still preparing to defend the original position limits regulations that were knocked back by a U.S. court last year.

• Fed's Powell-Policy to be highly accommodative for quite a while. The U.S. Federal Reserve will maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy for quite a while longer, regardless of what decision it takes on when to change the level of its monthly bond buying campaign, a senior u.S. central banker said on Friday. 

• Stock funds worldwide have $6.5 bln outflow - BofA. Investors in funds worldwide pulled $6.5 billion out of stock funds in the latest week, marking the largest such outflows in five weeks, data from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed Friday. 

• Copper up on U.S. after biggest weekly loss in a month. Copper rose on Friday, tracking equities markets as improved prospects of a deal in Washington to solve a fiscal deadlock boosted riskier assets, but the metal staged its biggest weekly loss in a month.

The Guardian:

• Skype under investigation in Luxembourg over link to NSA. Ten years ago, the calling service had a reputation as a tool for evading surveillance but now it is under scrutiny for covertly passing data to government agencies.