Before The Bell

by CC October 17, 2011 9:16 am • Commentary

Seeking Alpha

Monday’s economic calendar:
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
9:15 Industrial Production
7:30 PM Fed’s Lacker: Economic Outlook
8:00 PM Fed’s Evans: ‘U.S. Monetary Policy and Economic Outlook’

Bloomberg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that “dreams that are taking hold again now that with this package everything will be solved and everything will be over on Monday won’t be able to be fulfilled,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s chief spokesman, said at a briefing in Berlin today. The search for an end to the crisis “surely extends well into next year.”

U.S. equity futures fell after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index rose in October to minus 8.5 from minus 8.8 in September. Economists projected an improvement to minus 4, based on a Bloomberg News survey. Readings less than zero signal companies in the so-called Empire State Index, which covers New York, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut, are cutting back.

Industrial production in the U.S. probably advanced in September for a fifth consecutive month, a sign manufacturers are contributing to growth, economists said before reports today. Production at factories, mines and utilities increased 0.2 percent, the same as in August, according to the median forecast of 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Wells Fargo dropped 3.8 percent to $25.66. Net income climbed to a record $4.06 billion, or 72 cents a diluted share, from $3.34 billion, or 60 cents, in the same period a year earlier, the San Francisco-based company said today in a statement. The average estimate of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for earnings per share of 72 cents.

Citigroup rallied 1.4 percent to $28.80. The bank’s credit- valuation adjustment, or CVA, mirrored a similar $1.9 billion gain posted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) last week. The benefit helped Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 54, weather a quarter in which its shares tumbled 38 percent amid concern revenue from trading and investment-banking would drop because of Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. debt-ceiling fight.

WSJ

Economics and FedSpeak:

Monday

Empire State manufacturing index for October

Industrial production and capacity utilization for September

Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker speaks

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans speaks

Tuesday

Weekly chain-store sales

PPI for September

Treasury International Capital data for August

NAHB Housing Market Index for October

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifies in the Senate

Wednesday

Weekly MBA mortgage applications survey

Housing starts for September

CPI for September

Fed Beige Book report

Thursday

Weekly jobless claims

Existing home sales for September

Leading indicators for September

Philly Fed index for October

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks

Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto speaks

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota speaks

Friday

None

Earnings:

Monday

Halliburton

Hasbro

First Horizon National

Gannett

Charles Schwab

Stanley Black & Decker

Citigroup

Wells Fargo

Hasbro

IBM

Tuesday

Genuine Parts

Intuitive Surgical

Omnicom

State Street

UnitedHealth

Parker Hannifin

Coca-Cola

Johnson & Johnson

Harley-Davidson

Forest Laboratories

Apple

CSX

Intel

Juniper Networks

Linear Technology

Yahoo

Bank of America

EMC

W.W. Grainger

Goldman Sachs

Wednesday

Amphenol

eBay

PNC Financial

SUPERVALU

The Travelers

Textron

Xilinx

United Technologies

US Bancorp

Northern Trust

Freeport McMoRan

Comerica

BlackRock

Apollo Group

Abbott Laboratories

American Express

E*TRADE

Noble

SLM

Western Digital

Bank of New York Mellon

Morgan Stanley

St. Jude Medical

Edwards Lifesciences

Stryker

Thursday

AutoNation

Baxter International

Compuware

Diamond Offshore Drilling

Eli Lilly

Southwest Airlines

Noble Energy

Newfield Exploration

Nucor

Union Pacific

Snap-On

PPG Industries

McGraw-Hill

Laboratory Corp. of America

Janus Capital Group

Huntington Bancshares

Boston Scientific

BB&T

Chubb

Microsoft

SanDisk

Danaher

Fifth Third Bancorp

Philip Morris

FLIR Systems

AT&T

KeyCorp

Chipotle Mexican Grill

People’s United Financial

Capital One

Altera

Friday

Schlumberger

Verizon

Air Products & Chemicals

General Electric

Honeywell

McDonald’s

SunTrust Banks

Dover

Harman International Industries