Friday Watch

Evening Headlines 
Bloomberg:

• Putin Threatens EU Gas Squeeze Raising Stakes for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin flew into Milan last night for peace talks with European Union leaders after threatening to cut the supply of natural gas through Ukraine if the government in Kiev diverts fuel for domestic use. After missing an earlier meeting time because he stayed on at a military parade in Serbia, Putin met German Chancellor Angela Merkel shortly before midnight as they prepared for formal talks on Ukraine scheduled for 8 a.m. today. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also met Merkel as well as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and EU President Herman van Rompuy.

• How the World's Top Health Body Allowed Ebola to Spiral Out of Control.

• France Gets Whacked by the Bond Market. (graph)

• Asian Stocks Rebound From Six-Month Low on Fed Outlook. Asian stocks rose from a six-month low after a Federal Reserve official said the central bank should consider delaying the end of bond purchases and U.S. data eased concern over the global economy. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) climbed 0.1 percent to 134.93 as of 9:01 a.m. in Tokyo after closing yesterday at the lowest since March 25. The gauge is heading for a sixth straight weekly decline as faltering recoveries in China and Europe spark concern global economic growth will slow and the Fed considers when to raise interest rates.

Wall Street Journal:

• In Liberia, U.S. Soldiers Race Ebola. As Outbreak Spreads, International Community Rebuilds Nation’s Health-Care System. American and Liberian soldiers hammer, saw and sweat in the afternoon sun here in a frenetic campaign to build the county’s first Ebola-treatment unit. Soon, the soldiers will have floodlights to work round-the-clock shifts.

• Biden’s Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test. Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the matter.

• Corporate-Debt Market Slows to a Crawl. Banks’ Reduction of Bond Inventories Is Fueling Lack of Liquidity. Corporate-bond investors have struggled this week to find trading partners for some large orders, causing unusual price drops and raising concerns that trading could freeze in future market turmoil. 

• Global Markets Catch the Chinese Flu. The ill effects of Beijing’s borrowing and spending binge are rippling through the world economy. It has become almost politically correct to blame the latest global growth scare on the usual suspects, Japan and Europe, and to suggest that if only those skinflint Germans would spend more, all would be better.

Fox News:

• Ebola outbreak: CDC, Frontier Airlines hunt passengers who flew with nurse. (video) Authorities scrambled Thursday to contact the 132 passengers who flew from Cleveland to Dallas this week with a nurse who was stricken with the Ebola virus.

CNBC:

• Google(GOOG) shares slide after Q3 earnings miss. Google shares dipped after it delivered quarterly earnings and revenue that missed estimates. The online giant's cost per click—how much it earns when a user clicks its advertisers' ad—continues to decline. During the third quarter, CPC dropped 2 percent, year over year, versus expectations of a 4 percent decline, according to StreetAccount. Meanwhile, the number of paid clicks rose about 17 percent from a year ago, compared to forecasts for growth of 23.5 percent, according to StreetAccount. Shares fell as much as 6 percent before easing in after-hours trading.  

• Worried fliers wear masks as precaution against Ebola. (video)

• Short seller Carson Block considers hedge fund firm. Short seller Carson Block, the founder of research firm Muddy Waters who has exposed accounting problems at a slew of Chinese companies, said on Thursday that he is seriously considering launching a hedge fund investment firm.

Zero Hedge:

• Researchers Expect Over 20 US Ebola Cases In Weeks, "You Don't Want To Know Worst Case".

• Washington D.C. Is Now The Most Expensive Place To Live In The US.

• The Ebola Effect Arrives: Half Of Americans Will Avoid International Air Travel Out Of Ebola Fears.

• What Americans Are Thinking (And Asking) About The Fed.

• Dow Drops 6th Day - Longest Losing Streak In 14 Months. (graph)

• What A Correction Feels Like.

• 3 Things Worth Thinking About.

• Japanese Stocks Tumble After BoJ Bond-Buying Operation Fails For First Time Since Abenomics. (graph)

• Hyperinflation Doesn't Scare Kuroda But Ex-BoJ Chief Says "Quit While You're Ahead".

Business Insider:

• WHO Sounds The Alarm On Ebola: 'The Situation Is Deteriorating'.

• Another Semiconductor Company Delivers Bad News About The Industry And Now Its Stock Is Tanking.

• US Nurses On Ebola: 'We've Been Lied To'.

• Wells Fargo(WFC) Is Closing Its 'Dark Pool'.

Reuters:

• CF Industries(CF), Yara International end merger talks. CF Industries Holdings Inc ended merger talks with Norway's Yara International ASA after the companies failed to agree on terms of a deal that would have created a global fertilizer giant with an enterprise value approaching $30 billion. 

• U.S.-based European stock funds post record weekly outflows - Lipper.

• Fusion-io integration hurts chipmaker SanDisk's(SNDK) revenue forecast. Chipmaker SanDisk Corp forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates due to lower revenue from Fusion-io Inc, a solid-state storage products maker it acquired in June. SanDisk's shares fell 5 percent in extended trading, after the company also reported lower-than-expected revenue for the third quarter.

Obama takes on coal with first-ever carbon limits
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130919_ap_0f857b20e0c144a5a1e1b9dddc9f9d72.html#YRThyDOhArykUeYy.9Brazil cuts 2014 GDP growth forecast, keeps fiscal goaFed's Williams: Can't wait too long to raise rates

Evening Recommendations

• None of note

Night Trading

• Asian equity indices are -1.0% to +.50% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 126.0 -2.0 basis points.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 76.5 +2.75 basis points.

• FTSE-100 futures -.40%.

• S&P 500 futures +.22%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures  +.13%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

• (BK)/.61

• (CMA)/.80

• (GE)/.37

• (HON)/1.41

• (KSU)/1.26

• (MTB)/1.98

• (MS)/.53

• (STI)/.79

• (TXT)/.53

Economic Releases
8:30 am EST

• Housing Starts for September are estimated to rise to 1008K versus 956K in August. 

• Building Permits for September are estimated to rise to 1030K versus 998K in August.

9:55 am EST

• Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for October is estimated to fall to 84.0 versus 84.6 in September.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Yellen speaking on inequality, Fed's Rosengren speaking and the Canadian inflation data could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by real estate and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.