Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• OECD Trims Global Growth Forecast on Emerging-Market Slowdown. (video) The OECD trimmed its global economic forecasts for the second time in three months as slower growth in emerging markets spilled over into countries such as Germany and Japan. World output will expand 2.9 percent in 2015 and 3.3 percent in 2016, down from the 3 percent and 3.6 percent predicted in September, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a semi-annual report published Monday. “Global growth prospects have clouded this year,” the Paris-based organization said. “The outlook for emerging-market economies is a key source of global uncertainty at present.” The OECD barely changed its forecasts for Chinese output, pegging growth at 6.8 percent this year and 6.5 percent in 2016. Yet Brazil’s economy is now seen shrinking 3.1 percent this year and 1.2 percent next, compared with contractions of 2.8 percent and 0.7 percent predicted in September. Russian gross domestic product is on track to drop 4 percent in 2015 and 0.4 percent next year, according to the report. Since the OECD didn’t give an estimate for Russia in September, that compares with a June prediction for a contraction of 3.1 percent in 2015 and expansion of 0.8 percent in 2016. For emerging markets, “challenges have increased,” the OECD said. Should their situation deteriorate, “growth would also be hit in the euro area, as well as Japan.”
• China’s Growth Challenge: Imports/Exports Plunge. (video)
• Swedes on a Debt Binge Now Face Test of Rising Mortgage Rates. Sweden’s housing market is decoupling from monetary policy as mortgage rates are starting to rise after a four-year swoon. While the central bank last month pledged to keep its benchmark rate unchanged until early 2017 at a record low of minus 0.35 percent, some banks are increasing loan rates to cover rising funding costs amid concern over the red-hot housing market. That could put the pinch on the Swedish consumer. “To have interest rates this low isn’t sustainable,” Hans Lindblad, director-general of the National Debt Office, said in a Nov. 4 interview. “Above all, young households don’t realize that in normal times interest rates may be 4-6 percent, not 2 percent, and that’s something that households need to be able to handle.” Warnings of the risks building in Sweden are growing more frequent, with a number of bank executives and regulators sounding the alarm and the central bank revealing plans to cut its exposure to mortgage debt. Borrowing in Sweden has risen at twice the rate of economic growth since 2009, driving housing prices up almost 50 percent.
• Political Risks Re-Emerging in Europe Punish Portuguese Bonds. The re-emergence of political risks in the euro area played havoc with the region’s higher-yielding government bonds, blunting the impact of the European Central Bank’s asset-purchase program. Declines by Portugal’s sovereign bonds Monday pushed the 10-year yield to the highest level since July as a loose alliance of opposition parties was poised to topple Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s new government, boosting investors’ concern about political instability and plans to roll back spending cuts tied to the country’s previous international bailout.
• Brazil's Real Drops on Economic Woes as China Trade Disappoints. The Brazilian real slumped as economists in a central bank survey said the recession is worsening, while a disappointing trade report out of China shows it’s unlikely the Asian nation can help fuel a rebound anytime soon. The real dropped 0.9 percent to 3.8012 per dollar as of 4:23 p.m. in Sao Paulo. The currency is down 30 percent this year, making it the worst performer among 31 major counterparts to the dollar tracked by Bloomberg.
• European Stock Rally Runs Out of Steam Amid China Growth Concern. European stocks fell, after rising four times in the past five days, as investors weighed the outlook for global economic growth and stimulus. Shares of exporters fell after worse-than-forecast Chinese trade data. Continental AG led a drop in carmakers, losing 5.3 percent, after its sales missed analysts’ projections. Renault SA slid 3.5 percent after France, the company’s biggest shareholder, said it would oppose a merger with Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co. Personal and household-goods shares slid, with Hermes International SCA and Christian Dior SE down at least 2.1 percent. "There is some caution on the consumer side and export-led sectors that comes from questions about the Chinese economy and emerging markets as a whole,” said Pierre Mouton, a fund manager at Notz, Stucki & Cie. in Geneva. “The economic numbers from China are not very good for the time being.” The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 1.1 percent at the close of trading. Portugal’s PSI 20 Index slid 4.1 percent, the most among western-European markets.
• Dollar Surge Raises Red Flags. (video)
• Has the Market Had Enough of Share Buybacks? (video)
• Fed's Rosengren Signals Readiness to Lift Rates Amid Strong Data. (video) Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said encouraging U.S. economic data coupled with emerging signs of risk taking by some investors make it appropriate for the central bank to consider raising interest rates as soon as next month, while moving gradually thereafter. “All future committee meetings -- including December’s -- could be an appropriate time for raising rates, as long as the economy continues to improve as expected,” Rosengren said, according to remarks prepared for delivery Monday in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
• Banks Rewrite Contracts Worth Trillions to Shed Too-Big-to-Fail. (video) Wall Street is poised to expand a rewrite of financial contracts worth trillions of dollars in an effort to persuade regulators that giant banks can be wound down without hurting the broader economy. The trading and lending agreements being reworked are part of the grease that makes the global financial system function. The changes are expected to allow certain securities and funding contracts to remain intact for as long as 48 hours after a bank fails, said three people with knowledge of the matter. The extra time is intended to give a faltering bank’s home government time to jump in and set up a healthy version of the doomed institution, something that’s difficult to do when counterparties have terminated contracts and fled.
• For U.S. Stocks, Warnings Found in Investment-Grade Credits. U.S. stocks are up for the year, a 10 percent correction has been reversed, and valuations are back where they were in July. Back to normal, right? Wrong. Across the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, evidence has surfaced that the stresses that blew into credit markets this summer have changed the way Americans view stocks. Case in point: for one of the few times since 1996, companies whose bonds are rated investment grade are trading with higher price-earnings ratios than those rated junk. Concern about credit quality provided the prologue to the stock market’s 11 percent decline in August and, unlike the swoon itself, it hasn’t gone away. The flip-flop in valuations highlights newfound caution among investors who for most of the past two decades paid more for junk-rated companies, convinced they’d grow faster while falling rates kept solvency concerns at bay. “As the recovery starts to show age, the risk of recession starts to rise, and the last thing you want to be in as you head into a recession is low-quality rated companies,” said Jim Paulsen, the Minneapolis-based chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management Inc.  
• Macy's(M), Kohl's(KSS) Tumble After Citigroup Warns of `Tough Quarter'. Shares of Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. declined after Citigroup Inc. cut its earnings estimates for the companies, saying the industry is suffering from a sales slowdown and inventory glut. 
• Mallinckrodt(MNK) Drops on Mention by Valeant Foe Citron Research. Mallinckrodt Plc shares plummeted after the drugmaker was mentioned on Twitter by Citron Research, the stock-commentary site whose scrutiny helped lead to a rout of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s stock.
• Canadian Pacific(CP) Said to Explore Norfolk Southern(NSC) Takeover.

MarketWatch.com:

• New ‘too big to fail’ rules could force banks to raise up to $1.19 trillion. FSB rules apply to 30 banks; some may be forced to issue billions in new equity and debt.

Fox News:

• University of Missouri president resigns amid race backlash. (video) The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday morning in the face of growing protests -- including the threat of a faculty and student walkout  -- over his handling of a spate of racially charged incidents.

Zero Hedge:

• The Recessionary Signals Of A 5% Unemployment Rate. (graph)
• Third Freight Train Derails (Second Owned By Buffett) Days After Obama Kills Keystone Pipeline.
• What Rising Wages: Fed Itself Just Admitted "Household Income Expectations Are Falling Sharply". (graph)
• What An Industrial Depression Looks Like: Photos From An Australian Heavy-Machinery Auction. (graph)
• Demand 'Stimulus' Has Not Worked - It's Time To Tell The Truth About Debt.
• A Fifth Of Spain's GDP Just Voted To Secede - What Now?.
• IBM(IBM) Tumbles To New 5 Year Lows After Buffett Admits Huge Loss. (graph)
• Bond Blood-Bath Continues - 5Y Yield Nears Key Technical Resistance. (graph)
• Is The Political Climate Shifting Against The Oil And Gas Industry? (graph)
• Crude Crashes, Silver Slammed After Dollar Surge On More ECB Jawboning. (graph)
• "Let's Go For A Big Cut" - ECB "Consensus Forming" For Far Greater Negative Rates, Reuters Reports.
• Wall Street Braces For Drop In Bonuses, In Some Cases Up To 60%, For The First Time Since 2011. (graph)
• Black Swan Lands In Portugal As Socialists Move To Overthrow Government.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:

• Small-Cap Value -1.42%

Sector Underperformers:

• 1) Gaming -5.37% 2) Homebuilders -2.62% 3) Networking -2.36%

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:

• FTK, COMM, SYF, LABL, WY, SWIR, FONR, PCLN, FSTR, IFGL, GBT, AEGR, STRP, WLH, GSM, HTZ, MW, JNPR, STON, STMP, AGIO, GIII, TA, M, HA, RXDX, NYRT, LB, JWN, ARLP, BLDR, NFG, M, BID, JNPR, GSM, HTZ and FTK

Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:

• 1) ODP 2) EWG 3) JWN 4) SMH 5) JNPR
  

Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:

• 1) AA 2) SSYS 3) KSS 4) PCLN 5) TGT
  

Charts:

• ETFs Falling on Unusual Volume

• Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

• Large-Cap Value -1.32%

Sector Outperformers: 

• 1) Gold & Silver -.04% 2) Utilities -.06% 3) Biotech -.17%

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume: 

• PCL, APA, RLYP, ISIS, CYTK, LXRX, IPXL, NLNK, DF and WWAV

Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity: 

• 1) MW 2) ERX 3) EFA 4) BMRN 5) DISH

Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions: 

• 1) APA 2) CACI 3) FRED 4) AVAV 5) CMTL

Charts: 

• ETFs Rising on Unusual Volume 
• Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

Morning Market Internals

NYSE Composite Index:

• Volume Running +.6% Above 100-Day Average
• 0 Sectors Rising, 10 Sectors Declining
• 14.8% of Issues Advancing, 83.7% Declining
• 26 New 52-Week Highs, 59 New Lows
• 37.8% of Issues Above 200-day Moving Average
• Average 14-Day RSI 44.8
• Vix 16.0
• Total Put/Call 1.16
• TRIN/Arms .97

Monday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 

• Global GDP Worse Than Official Forecasts Show, Maersk CEO Says. The world’s economy is growing at a slower pace than the International Monetary Fund and other large forecasters are predicting. That’s according to Nils Smedegaard Andersen, chief executive officer at A.P. Moeller-Maersk. His company, owner of the world’s biggest shipping line, is a bellwether for global trade, handling about 15 percent of all consumer goods transported by sea. “We believe that global growth is slowing down,” he said in a phone interview. “Trade is currently significantly weaker than it normally would be under the growth forecasts we see.” “We conduct a string of our own macro-economic forecasts and we see less growth -- particularly in developing nations, but perhaps also in Europe -- than other people expect in 2015,” Andersen said. Also for 2016, “we’re a little bit more pessimistic than most forecasters.”    
• The New Chinese Birth Control: Sky-High Costs of Raising Kids. While China’s Communist Party rolled back its long-standing one-child policy last month, economists are expecting another equally powerful deterrent to kick in: the soaring cost of raising kids. Their projections are borne out by middle-class Chinese like Liu He. A project manager in Beijing’s thriving technology industry, 38-year-old Liu and her husband together make 40,000 yuan ($6,300) a month. About 40 percent of that goes toward their three-year-old daughter. There are fixed costs like food, kindergarten and a nanny besides savings for future painting and piano lessons, and even college in the U.S. some day.
• Goldman's(GS) BRIC Era Ends as Fund Folds After Years of Losses. The BRIC era is coming to an end at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank’s asset-management unit folded its money-losing BRIC fund, which invests in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and merged it last month with a broader emerging-market fund. Goldman Sachs pulled the plug on the nine-year-old product because it doesn’t expect “significant asset growth in the foreseeable future,” according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fourteen years after former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym that ushered in an unprecedented investment boom, the biggest emerging markets are now sputtering. Russia and Brazil have fallen into recessions. China, long an engine of the world’s growth, is poised for its weakest expansion since 1990. The downfall of the BRIC fund, which had lost 88 percent of its assets since a 2010 peak, also underscores how the strategy of bundling disparate countries into a single investment theme is losing its appeal among investors.
• Dubai Stocks Enter Bear Market as Mideast Equities Slump on Oil. Dubai stocks dropped into a bear market, leading declines across most Middle Eastern equity markets, after Friday’s U.S. labor report increased expectations that the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates this year, pushing Brent crude lower. The DFM General Index slid 3 percent to 3,347.23, the lowest level since December and the biggest drop in more than two months. The gauge has fallen more than 20 percent since a peak in April. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index lost 0.6 percent, closing at the lowest level since January 2013. “When you see an aggressive drop in oil price, it puts people on edge,” said Ahmed Shehada, the Dubai-based executive director for advisory and institutions at NBAD Securities LLC, a unit of the U.A.E.’s biggest bank. “In addition, there are the banks’ results. A lot of operating income has dropped and this is having” an effect across the board, he said. 
• India Nifty Futures Slump After Modi Suffers Loss in State Poll. Indian stock-index futures declined on concern an election defeat by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party party in the country’s third-most-populous state will hamper his ability to push through much-needed economic policies to strengthen the economy. SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for November delivery slid 1.9 percent to 7,827 at 9:11 a.m. in Singapore. The S&P BSE Sensex declined 0.2 percent to 26,265.24 on Friday. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index of U.S.-traded shares fell 2 percent after better-than-forecast U.S. payroll figures on Friday boosted speculation the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates next month. 
• Asian Currencies Fall on Outflow Risks as Fed Move Edges Closer. Malaysia’s ringgit and the South Korean won led losses in Asia on prospects the growing possibility that the U.S. will raise interest rates next month will spur capital outflows as domestic assets become less appealing. The ringgit declined to a one-month low after a report on Friday showed American employers added 271,000 jobs in October, the most in a year. A gauge of the dollar was near the highest level in Bloomberg-compiled data going back to 2004 as futures traders raised bets for monetary tightening in the U.S. to 68 percent from 56 percent the day before the numbers. Asian currencies also fell after a report from China, the biggest overseas market for many regional economies, reaffirmed growth is slowing. The ringgit slumped 1.2 percent as of 10:31 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur, the biggest loss in almost three weeks, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It is down 19 percent this year in Asia’s worst performance amid a plunge in commodity prices. The won declined 0.9 percent and the Indonesian rupiah retreated 0.8 percent.
• Asia Stocks Outside Japan Fall After U.S. Payrolls, China Trade. Asian stocks outside Japan dropped as a strong U.S. payrolls report bolstered the case for higher interest rates this year and data showed Chinese exports fell for a fourth month. Japanese shares gained after the yen weakened. The MSCI Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Index lost 0.7 percent to 420.57 as of 9:52 a.m. in Tokyo.
• Steel Exports From China in Retreat as Trade Frictions Escalate. The flood of steel that mills in China are pushing onto global markets fell in October from a record amid rising trade frictions and weak overseas demand, signaling that what’s been a safety valve for the world’s top producer may now be starting to close. Outbound cargoes of steel shrank 20 percent to 9.02 million metric tons last month from September, according to customs data released on Sunday. That was the lowest figure since June, and below the monthly average so far this year of 9.21 million tons. “The slump in steel exports last month compared with September reflects rising trade frictions for Chinese products,” Helen Lau, an analyst at Argonaut Securities (Asia) Ltd. in Hong Kong, said after the release of the trade data, which showed overall exports from the country dropped for a fourth month, adding to signs of headwinds. “There have been complaints in Asean, Europe and recently the U.S.” about Chinese steel, Lau said.
• Global Coal Consumption Heads for Biggest Decline in History. Coal consumption is poised for its biggest decline in history, driven by China’s battle against pollution, economic reforms and its efforts to promote renewable energy. Global use of the most polluting fuel fell 2.3 percent to 4.6 percent in the first nine months of 2015 from the same period last year, according to a report released Monday by the environmental group Greenpeace. That’s a decline of as much as 180 million tons of standard coal, 40 million tons more than Japan used in the same period. The report confirms that worldwide efforts to fight global warming are having a significant impact on the coal industry, the biggest source of carbon emissions. It comes a day before the International Energy Agency is scheduled to release its annual forecast detailing the ways the planet generates and uses electricity. “These trends show that the so-called global coal boom in the first decade of the 21st century was a mirage,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, Greenpeace’s coal and energy campaigner. The decline in coal use will help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that are blamed for heating up the planet.
• Fed's Williams Says October Rate Decision Was a Close Call. The U.S. economy has reached at least one measure of full employment and the decision to keep interest rates near zero in October was a close one, said John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “To my mind, the decision was a close call, in part reflecting the crosscurrents we’re navigating,” Williams said Saturday at an education event in Tempe, Arizona. “On one hand, the U.S. economy continues to grow and is closing in on full employment. On the other, in large part due to developments abroad, inflation has remained lower than we’d like.” Williams told reporters later that he’s waiting to see incoming data before making predictions about a rate increase at the Dec. 15-16 Fed meeting in Washington. 
• Hedge Funds Raised Treasury Shorts to Most Since '13 Before Jobs. Hedge funds picked just the right time to increase bearish bets on Treasuries by the most since March 2013. Large speculators including hedge funds boosted net short positions in 10-year notes by 128,601 contracts to 164,264 in the week ended Nov. 3, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. U.S. employers added the most jobs of any month this year in October, the Labor Department said Friday, sending benchmark Treasury yields to the highest since July. Traders see a 68 percent chance the Federal Open Market Committee will raise interest rates by its December meeting, up from 56 percent odds before the payroll data.

Wall Street Journal:

• China Exports Slump as Global Demand Shrinks. Trade data suggest China’s export scene is worsening. China’s exports fell in October for the fourth consecutive month, as a once-powerful engine of the country’s growth continued to sputter in the face of weak global demand. The world’s appetite for goods from China—the world’s second-largest economy accounts for nearly one-fifth of global factory exports—has been lower than expected this year. Meanwhile, weak domestic demand continues to reduce imports. Both are contributing to China’s growth slowdown. “The mix of the data is again not encouraging,” said...
• Takeover Loans Have Few Takers on Wall Street. Wall Street banks are struggling to sell billions of dollars of buyout loans, a sign that investor appetite for riskier debt remains muted despite a robust autumn rally in other financial markets. Wall Street banks are struggling to sell billions of dollars of loans they made to finance the corporate buyout boom, a sign that investor appetite for riskier debt remains muted despite a robust autumn rally in other financial markets.
• Hedge-Fund Prodigy Takes a $300 Million Hit. Star money manager Nehal Chopra’s Tiger Ratan Capital Fund LP has fallen 33% in three months.
• Prosecuting Climate Dissent. Progressives target Exxon for punishment over its research. Sheldon Whitehouse got his man. The Rhode Island Senator has been lobbying for prosecutions of oil and gas companies over climate change, and New York Attorney General and progressive activist Eric Schneiderman has now obliged by opening a subpoena assault on Exxon Mobil. This marks a dangerous new escalation of the left’s attempt to stamp out all disagreement on global-warming science and policy.

Fox News:

• Congress makes bipartisan calls for Obama to step up ISIS attacks, in wake of downed Russian airliner. (video) Top congressional lawmakers expressed little doubt Sunday that ISIS is responsible for the recently downed Russian jetliner and called for heightened security and a revamped U.S. foreign policy to prevent a similar attack on an American passenger jet. The calls for a more aggressive response were made by Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans, including leaders in intelligence, foreign policy and homeland security.
• Carson: Stories about past are 'political hit job,' fuel million-dollar fundraisers. (video)

MarketWatch.com:

• Investors are ignoring the strong dollar at their peril."Going into 2016, a stronger dollar and the advent of a tightening cycle, even a gentle one, could impede both U.S. earnings growth and multiple expansion,” warned Russ Koesterich, BlackRock Global Chief Investment Strategist, in a blog post earlier this week. “For now, however, based on last week’s U.S. stock market performance, investors appear to be overlooking this fact.”

CNBC:

• China regulators to allow IPOs to resume. China's securities regulator said on Friday it would allow the resumption of initial public offerings in China, lifting a suspension put into effect in July as regulators desperately tried to slow a devastating stock market crash.

Zero Hedge:

• Global Trade, Demand Continues To Dry Up As China's Exports Miss For Fourth Straight Month. (graph)
• The Fly In The Buyback Ointment: Corporate Leverage Is At Record Levels. (graph)
• What Can Yellen Really Do? (graph)
• Three Ads That Summarize The Current State Of The Subprime Housing Market.
• "Stranded" Central Bankers Have Turned The Global Financial System Into A "Doomsday Machine". (graph)
• "A Thin-Skinned Minority Is Ruining This Nation": Professor Crushes "Political Correctness" Wave Sweeping America. 
• Officials Secretly Added Cancer-Causing Chemicals to City’s Water Supply.
• "US Debt Is 3 Times More Than You Think" Warns Former Chief US Accountant. 

Business Insider:

• Chinese stocks are soaring on another debt-fueled binge.
• GOLDMAN: The US dollar is bulking up and it's about to crush the euro.
• The US is worried that American cash is flowing to ISIS and Iran from the Fed.
• Everybody lost it when a Navy missile lit up the night sky over the West Coast. (video)
• Central bankers are unknowingly disrupting adjustment mechanisms that automatically eliminate excesses in the world. (graph)
• US naval commander sees no change in Iran's regional behavior in wake of nuclear deal.

Reuters:

• Weyerhaeuser(WY) to buy Plum Creek(PCL), creating $23 bln timber company.
  
  Weyerhaeuser Co will purchase Plum Creek Timber Co Inc in a deal announced on Sunday that the two companies said would create a $23 billion timber, land and forest products company, the largest in the United States. The new company, which will keep the Weyerhaeuser name, will manage more than 13 million acres of timberland that will allow it to drive economies of scale and capitalize on the U.S. housing recovery, the companies said. The merger combines the two largest owners of timberland in the United States.

Financial Times:

• Saudi Aramco Chairman Says No Talks to Cut Oil Output. "The only thing to do now is let the market do its job," citing Chairman Khalid Al-Falih. "There have been no conversations here that say we should cut production no that we've seen the pain.

Telegraph:

• Fears for China hard landing grow as trade gap hits record. Chinese consumers are not filling the gap left by a slowdown in more traditional manufacturing industries and exports.

Night Trading

• Asian indices are -1.0% to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 124.5 unch.

• Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 70.75 +1.5 basis points.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 71.13 -.05%.  

• S&P 500 futures +.12%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.17%.

Morning Preview Links 

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate 

• (ACI)/-5.53
• (CF)/.24
• (DISH)/.38
• (HTZ)/.54
• (ICPT)/-2.73
• (PCLN)/24.24
• (BID)/-.28
• (ATW)/1.93
• (XONE)/-.07
• (JAZZ)/2.56
• (MDR)/-.05 

Economic Releases
10:00 am EST

• The Labor Market Conditions Index for October is estimated to rise to .9 versus 0.0 in September.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Rosengren speaking, German Trade Balance report, Japan Trade Balance report, $24B 3Y T-Note auction, Baird Industrials Conference, BofA Merrill Energy Conference, CSFB Healthcare Conference and the (UAL) October Sales/Revenue release could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by commodity and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.

Week Ahead by Bloomberg. 
Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.
Weekly Economic Calendar by Briefing.com.

BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week modestly lower on China bubble-bursting fears, Fed rate-hike worries, commodity weakness, rising European/Emerging Markets/US High-Yield debt angst, technical selling and earnings outlook concerns. My intermediate-term trading indicators are giving neutral signals and the Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.