Monday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:        

• Evergrande’s Fateful Week, China Holidays Put Spotlight on Yuan.  
• Xi’s Celebrity Crackdown No Match for Universal Studios in China.
• The Global Housing Market Is Broken, and It’s Dividing Entire Countries.  
• Singapore Cases Hit 2021 High; U.N. Vaccine Debate: Virus Update.
• Stocks Set to Dip as Traders Mull Evergrande, Fed: Markets Wrap.  
• Oil Edges Lower for a Second Session With Focus on Fed Stimulus.  
• Canada’s Oil Patch Heads for Hospital Triage With Virus Raging.  
• House Democrats May Slow Infrastructure Plan’s Path to Biden.

Wall Street Journal:

• Natural-Gas Prices Surge With Winter Still Months Away.  
• Why Men Are Disappearing on Campus.  
• How to Gerrymander the Empire State.  
• What Explains Xi’s Pivot to the State?
• In Overwhelmed Del Rio, Texas, Migrants Cross the Border Freely.
• Junk-Debt Sales Soar Toward Record Year.

Fox News:  

• Biden confronted about Afghan while on vacay but just keeps peddling.

CNBC:

• Amazon is piling ads into search results as top consumer brands pay up for prominent placement.
• Elon Musk mocks President Biden after SpaceX completes first all-civilian mission.
• Top Wall Street analysts believe these stocks are poised for upside.

Zero Hedge: 

• J6 'Chaos' Total Bust For Media As Cops, Journalists And FBI Appear To Outnumber Protesters.
• The Fed Has Liquidated Its Entire Corporate Bond Portfolio.
• Former Lehman Trader On "China's Lehman Moment".
• CARFAX Warns 200,000 Vehicles Damaged By Hurricane Ida May Flood Market.
• Hedge Fund CIO: The 60:40 Portfolio Is Forever Broken, What Happens Now.
• Fed Chair Powell Owned At Least $1.5 Million In Municipal Bonds Like The Ones The Fed Bailed Out In 2020.
• Justice Thomas Defends The High Court, Warns Against "Destroying Our Institutions".
• Joint Chiefs Chairman Under Obama Urges Accountability For Botched Drone Strike.
• Greenwald: Indictment Of Hillary Clinton's Lawyer Is An Indictment Of The Russiagate Wing Of U.S. Media.
• "The Story Is Not Over" - Fauci Rejects "The Science", Says Covid Boosters Still Likely Despite FDA Rebuke.
• "What On Earth Is Going On In Commodities?"- Morgan Stanley Explains.
• "The Height Of Hypocrisy": Designer Of AOC's "Tax The Rich" Dress Owes Taxes In "Multiple States".
• Dems To Capitulate On $3.5T Spending Bill, May 'Go It Alone' On Debt Ceiling.
• White House Debating Vaccines For Air Travel After Fauci Said He'd Support A Mandate.
• "This Is Not Political!" - 1000s Gather At 'Freedom Rally' In New York City To Oppose Vaccine Passport.
• Biden's Border Blunder: 15,000 Migrants Under Texas Bridge Forces Gov. Abbott To Send In Troopers.
• "Team Transitory" Suffers Blow As Used Car Prices Resume Surge.
• Tropical Storm Peter Forms In Atlantic Basin As 17th Named Storm.
• France Still Seething, Warns Australia Over "Huge Mistake" In Defense Deal With US.

MarketWatch.com:            

• Nursing homes are now facing a COVID resurgence, and a staffing shortage will only make it worse.

AP:

• 125 no longer employed after declining vaccine at Indiana’s largest hospital system. Indiana’s largest hospital system says more than 100 workers are no longer employed with the health network after they did not comply with its mandate for all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Reuters:

• South Africa has administered at least 14,670,161 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 12.5% of the country’s population.
• Israel has administered at least 14,607,688 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 80.7% of the country’s population. Israel is reporting 8,429 new infections on average each day(651 infections per 100K people reported last 7 days), 78% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on September 13.

NewsMax:

• Ex-Border Chief Morgan: DHS Leaving Texas Border Exposed to 'Invasion'.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• What’s Going On? Arizona Recently Processed 673,000 Voter Identities with the Social Security Administration – 58% Had NO MATCH FOUND.
• Vaccines Are for the Serfs: No Vaccine Rules for Global Elites at UN Meetings This Week — in NY City.
• Fauci Scrambles to Defend Joe Biden’s Confusing Messaging on Boosters After FDA Declines Approval (VIDEO)   BREAKING: Dr. Fauci Funded 60 Projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and All Were in Conjunction with the Chinese Military.
  

The Epoch Times:

• Chinese Regime’s Forced Organ Harvesting Could Spread to Other Countries, NGO Director Warns.

Covid-19(Data, Maps, Graphs):

• Our World in Data:  New Global Covid-19 Cases(7-day rolling average graphs). New US Covid Hospital Admissions/ICU Admissions/Deaths
  
• FT.com:  Fully Vaccinated by Country(graph). Global Lockdown Stringency Index(map).
• Bloomberg.com:  International Travel Restrictions.  Case Graphs by State.
  
• NYTimes.com:  County Trends and Clusters. Local ICU Occupancy.
  
• Brown School of Public Health:  Covid Severity by State/County(map).  US Hospital Capacity(region).
  
• CovidActNow:  Covid Severity/Infection Rate by Metro Area.
  
• KFF:  US Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity.
  
• Carnegie Mellon: Covid-Like Symptoms in Community. Covid Symptom Searches on Google. Covid-Related Dr.Visits.  Restaurant Visits. Wearing Masks. (graphs)
  
• Safegraph.com:  Commerce Patterns(graphs).

Night Trading

• Asian indices are -1.25% to -.5% on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 71.0 +3.5 basis points.
• China Sovereign CDS 36.75 +2.75 basis points.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 59.58 -.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 2,904.0 -2.0 point.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 20.10 +.74%. 
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.4%.
• S&P 500 futures -.12%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures unch.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate

Before the Open:

• None of note
  

After the Close:

• (LEN)/3.27

Economic Releases

10:00 am EST

• The NAHB Housing Market Index for Sept. is estimated to fall to 74.0 versus 75.0 in Aug.
  

Upcoming Splits

• (RJF) 3-for-2
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The German PPI report, BofA Real Estate Conference and the Oppenheimer Healthcare Life Sciences/Med Tech Summit could also impact trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST

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