Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:          

• Biden-Xi Thaw Quietly Takes Hold as Taiwan Tensions Flare.
• Celtics’ Enes Kanter Sends More Tweets Critical of China.  
• Commodities Whipsawed on Speculation of China’s Next Energy Step.
• U.S. Futures Dip; Asia Stocks Set for Steady Start: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Edges Up as OPEC+ Expects Tighter Market This Quarter.
• Biden’s $1.75 Trillion Gambit Shifts Focus to Democrats’ Divides.
  
• BlackRock’s Hedge Fund Star Gets Paid More Than CEO Larry Fink.  
• Citi Requires Vaccines for All U.S. Workers, Citing Biden Order.  
• NYPD Has 10,000 Unvaccinated Officers as Mandate Deadline Approaches.  
• U.S. Steel Shares Surge After Stock Buyback Announcement.
• Zendesk to Buy SurveyMonkey Parent Momentive Global.

Wall Street Journal:

• Global Chip Shortage ‘Is Far From Over’ as Wait Times Get Longer.
• Hospital Prices Are Arbitrary. Just Look at the Kingsburys’ $100,000 Bill.
• Some Employees Are Willing to Leave Jobs Over Vaccine Mandates, Survey Find.
• The Left’s Climate Humiliation. They were expecting mandates, but they’ll have to settle for more corporate welfare. 
• The Summer of Stagflation. The White House policy mix has yielded slower growth but higher prices. 

Fox News:   

• Fox News Poll: New leader rockets to front of pack in bellwether governor's race with days before election.
• Biden will go overseas with NOTHING to show as divided Dems fail to reach deal.
  
• CONCHA: McAuliffe, Biden fixate on Trump in desperate attempt to win Virginia race.
• EXCLUSIVE: Alec Baldwin goes luxury shopping one week after tragedy on set.
  

CNBC.com:

• Biden’s social spending framework gets a chilly reception from holdouts in Congress. 
• Former NY Gov. Cuomo charged with sex crime, months after resigning amid harassment probe.
• Brunswick CEO: It may take 3 years for boat inventories to return to normal.
• Facebook changes company name to Meta.
• Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Amazon, Apple, Starbucks & more.
• Why Ford’s stock is surging while shares of GM are flat after Q3 earnings beats.

MarketWatch

• Starbucks stock falls as sales growth fails to meet expectations.
• ‘It’s like being ripped into two’: Chipotle workers overwhelmed by online orders and furious customers.

Zero Hedge:  

• Pelosi Plans Fizzle After Jayapal 'No' Sinks Thursday Infrastructure Vote.
• Coast Guard Says 100 Containers Fell Off Cargo Ship, Some Carrying Christmas Decorations And Toys. 
• McDonald's Hikes Big Mac Prices To Offset Surging Costs.
• Dave Chappelle Says Distributors Are Cancelling His New Documentary Over Netflix Special Controversy.
• Terry McAuliffe Hires Controversial Ex-Clinton Lawyer Marc Elias.
• Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person.
• Mexican Tourist Mecca Is Spiraling Out Of Control As Cartels Wage War.
• Three Ways Government Spending Is Ripping Us Off.
• Healthcare Exec Fired For Being White Wins $10 Million In Discrimination Case.
• Inexpensive Antidepressant Slashes COVID-19 Hospitalizations By Over 30%: New Study Finds.
• Apple Plunges After First Revenue Miss In 4 Years, Warns Of $6 Billion In "Supply Constraints".
• Free Stuff Isn't Free.
• Shippers Fear "Catastrophic" Fallout From "Crazy" California Port Fees.
• Amazon Tumbles After Missing Revenues And Earnings, Guiding Far Below Consensus.
• Dollar Dives Amid Crypto Chaos As Biden Unveils Big-Spending Bill.

Newsmax:  

• Sen. Blackburn: AG Garland 'Inappropriate' at Senate Hearing.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• Biden’s COVID Nightmare – One-Third of US Military Are Still Not Fully Vaccinated.
• LIVE STREAM VIDEO: WI Sheriff Schmaling: ‘ELECTION LAW WAS NOT JUST BROKEN BUT SHATTERED!” – Releases Evidence of Election Fraud in Racine, Wisconsin!
• BREAKING: Republican Youngkin Up 8 Points in FOX News VA Governor’s Race Poll — Following McAuliffe Campaign Events with Obama, Kamala and Joe Biden.
• Ireland Has Massive New COVID Outbreak Despite 91% Vaccination Rate.
• Florida School Board Member Chaperones Little Children on Gay Bar Field Trip.
• Biden Regime to Pay Hundreds of Millions to Illegal Alien Families ‘Separated’ at Border in 2018 – $450,000 Per Illegal Alien.
• Garbage Piling Up Everywhere, 45% of Firemen and 25% of Police Facing Termination Friday – This Is Democrat De Blasio’s New York City.

The Epoch Times:

• Conference: ‘China: Forced Organ Harvesting and the Chinese Communist Party’.

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 equity indices are -.25% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 80.25 +1.0 basis point.

• China Sovereign CDS 45.25 +.5 basis point.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 58.36 +.03%. 
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 3,202.0 -94.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 19.0 +1.9%.
• FTSE 100 futures +.03%.

• S&P 500 futures -.32%

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.64%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (ABBV)/3.22
• (B)/.50
• (CRI)/1.73
• (CBOE)/1.43
• (CERN)/.82
• (CHTR)/5.80
• (CVX)/2.19
• (CL)/.80
• (XOM)/1.52
• (LYB)/5.73
• (NWL)/.50
• (PSX)/1.93
• (RCL)/-4.00
• (WY)/.56
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• The Employment Cost Index for 3Q is estimated to rise +.9% versus a +.7% gain in 2Q.
• Personal Income for Sept. is estimated to fall -.3% versus a +.2% gain in Aug.
• Personal Spending for Sept. is estimated to rise +.6% versus a +.8% gain in Aug.
• The PCE Core MoM for Sept. is estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.3% gain in Aug.
  

9:45 am EST

• The MNI Chicago PMI for Oct. is estimated to fall to 63.5 versus 64.7 in Sept.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Japan Housing Data report, (ALGN) investor day and the (JW/A) investor day could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by industrial and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.