Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Islamic State Enters Kobani Amid Street Fight With Kurds. Islamic State militants pushed further into Kobani on Syria’s border with Turkey and battled Kurdish fighters inside the town, as the U.S.-led coalition stepped up airstrikes in the region. About 2,000 militants entered Kobani late yesterday, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said. The Kurdish agency Firat reported fierce clashes in eastern and southern districts. Airstrikes late yesterday and today against the group’s positions “were effective and have slowed their advance,” Ibrahim Kurdo, a local official, said by phone, describing the Kurdish position as “better than it was two days ago.”
• IMF Cuts Global Outlook as Risk of ‘Frothy’ Stocks Raised. The International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth in 2015 and warned about the risks of rising geopolitical tensions and a financial-market correction as stocks reach “frothy” levels. The world economy will grow 3.8 percent next year, compared with a July forecast for 4 percent, after a 3.3 percent expansion this year, the Washington-based IMF said. U.S. growth is helping lead a worldwide acceleration that’s weaker than the fund predicted 2 1/2 months ago as the outlooks for the euro area, Brazil, Russia and Japan deteriorate. “In advanced economies, the legacies of the precrisis boom and the subsequent crisis, including high private and public debt, still cast a shadow on the recovery,” the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook. “Emerging markets are adjusting to rates of economic growth lower than those reached in the precrisis boom and the postcrisis recovery.” “Downside risks related to an equity price correction in 2014 have also risen, consistent with the notion that some valuations could be frothy,” the lender said without naming specific markets. 
• Japan Lawmakers Flag Need for Exit Strategy as Yen Falls. Japanese lawmakers are flagging the need for discussion of an exit strategy to a monetary policy program that’s driving the yen lower and hurting parts of the economy. “It could be important to get involved in this issue and the government should thoroughly examine it,” lawmaker Toshihiro Nikai said after a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s general council. An exit strategy should be considered was an opinion that came up at the council meeting, Nikai said.
• German Industrial Output Drops Most Since 2009 in August. German industrial production (GRIPIMOM) fell more than economists forecast in August in the latest sign that the outlook for Europe’s largest economy is deteriorating. Production, adjusted for seasonal swings, dropped 4 percent from July, when it expanded 1.6 percent, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said today. That’s the biggest decline since January 2009 and compares with a median estimate of 1.5 percent in a Bloomberg News survey.
• Russia Spends Up to $1.75 Billion in Two Days to Buoy Ruble. Russia’s central bank spent as much as $1.75 billion to prop up the ruble over the last two trading days, its biggest market intervention since President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine in March. Russia’s central bank spent the equivalent of $980 million to shore up the ruble on Oct. 3, the latest data on the authority’s website showed today. The bank also said it shifted the upper boundary of the currency’s trading band by 10 kopeks yesterday, a move that may have involved spending between $420 million and $769 million that day. The exchange rate weakened 0.3 percent to 44.6234 versus the basket by 5:12 p.m. in Moscow, set for a record low for the fourth time this month.
• Spain Hunts for Anyone Who Had Contact With Ebola-Stricken Nurse. Spain is urgently compiling a list of people who had contact with the nurse who became the first case of an Ebola infection outside Africa when she was diagnosed in Madrid yesterday. The government is taking action to keep doctors and staff safe at Hospital Carlos III, and is investigating how the woman became infected, Health Minister Ana Mato said at a news conference yesterday. The nurse treated Manuel Garcia, a priest who died of Ebola last month, at the hospital. Her husband and thirty medical workers are being monitored, officials said. 
• Euro-Area Bonds Drop as Investors Question ECB Response to Slump. Euro-area government bonds declined on investor concern the European Central Bank will fail to revive the region’s faltering economy, curbing demand for assets across the currency bloc. A gauge of price-growth expectations in the euro region dropped to the least on record even as a German official said the government doesn’t see a deflation risk. Benchmark 10-year bund yields earlier approached an all-time low as data showing industrial production dropped the most since 2009 in August boosted speculation the outlook for Europe’s largest economy is deteriorating. Spain sold index-linked debt due in November 2019 via banks today.
• European Stocks Decline as German Output Data Disappoint. European stocks slid to a seven-week low as a report showed German industrial production contracted the most in more than five years, and the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth. Travel and health-care companies led declines on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Schroders (SDR) Plc lost 2.3 percent after Bank of America Corp.recommended investors sell shares of the asset manager. Rio Tinto Group gained after saying it rejected a merger offer from Glencore Plc. The Stoxx 600 fell 1.5 percent to 330.85 at the close of trading, extending losses after the IMF release.
• Oil Plunge Magnifies Russia’s Sanctions Pain: Chart of the Day. Oil prices that have plunged to a 27-month low are inflicting damage on a Russian economy already contending with escalating sanctions from the U.S. and European Union over its role in Ukraine. The CHART OF THE DAY shows how an average oil price of $90 a barrel, close to where prices are now, would give Russia a budget deficit of 1.2 percent of gross domestic product next year, according to Sberbank CIB, the investment bank of Russia’s biggest lender.
• Copper Falls Amid Concern European Demand Is Set to Slow. Copper in London capped the first loss in three sessions as industrial production dropped in Germany, the world’s third-biggest consumer of the metal. Copper for delivery in three months fell 0.6 percent to settle at $6,670 a metric ton ($3.03 a pound) at 5:50 p.m. on the LME. The metal lost 9.4 percent this year on concern that demand is slowing in China, the biggest user.
• Several Dozen U.S. Troops to Have Contact Testing Ebola. A few dozen U.S. troops will have direct exposure to potential Ebola patients by running testing labs in Liberia, the head of U.S. Africa Command said for the first time today.

MarketWatch.com:

• Record 200-day moving average due for a fall. (graph) The stock market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index broke down through support, and the reflex rally that followed was feeble.
• Volume a sign of the Nasdaq’s weakened state. (graph)

CNBC:

• Confidence in Obama on economy sinks to new low. Just 24 percent of Americans say they are extremely or quite confident in Obama's economic policies and goals, down from 33 percent when the question was last asked in June 2013, the previous low-point of the Obama presidency. And 44 percent of the public say they have no confidence at all in the president on the economy, tied with the prior low in August 2012.
• China banking crisis? Here's what it might look like. 
• Home prices headed for a triple dip.

ZeroHedge:

• Deutsche Bank's Shocking Admission: "QE In Europe Will Be Ineffective".
• Why Volume Matters. (graph)
• Spain Warns "Something Went Wrong" As Suspected Ebola Cases Rise In Madrid.
• Japan Admits It Has Entered A Triple-Dip Recession.
• European Stocks Slide Below Key Support Level. (graph)
• Bundesbank Blasts Draghi's QE, Fears "Monetary Policy Is Hostage To Politics".
• US Hiring Plummets Most Since June 2010, Fewest Hires Since Polar Vortex Ground Economy To A Halt. (graph)

Business Insider:

• GOLDMAN(GS): These Are The 19 Most Overpriced Stocks In The Market.
• UN: More Cases Of Ebola In Europe Are 'Unavoidable'.