$AAPL to Release the Mini iPad Today

“SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc is expected to make its biggest product move on Tuesday since debuting the iPad two years ago, launching a smaller, cheaper tablet into a market staked out by Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc.

Apple hopes to beat back their charge onto its home turf of consumer electronics hardware, while safeguarding its lead in the larger 10-inch tablet space that even deep-pocketed rivals like Samsung Electronics have found tough to penetrate.

Amazon’s Kindle and Google’s Nexus 7 have grabbed a chunk of the lower end of the tablet market and proved demand for a pocket-sized slate exists, helping force Apple into a space it has avoided and at times derided, analysts say.

A smaller tablet would mark the first device to be added to Apple’s compact portfolio under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from co-founder Steve Jobs just before his death.”

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YIPPY. Stock is up pre-market

“United Technologies Corp. (UTX) posted higher third-quarter profit than analysts estimated after boosting aerospace sales with the acquisition of Goodrich Corp. and a controlling stake in the International Aero Engines venture.

Adjusted profit was $1.37 a share, compared with the $1.19 average of 20 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Net income climbed 6.9 percent to $1.42 billion, or $1.56 a share, from $1.32 billion, or $1.47, a year earlier, the Hartford, Connecticut-based company said today in a statement.”

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Profits fell 12% @ $XRX….

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A global slowdown helped DuPont to miss estimates and cause them to cut 1500 jobs in order to manage costs and boosts profits.

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“United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) reduced the top end of its 2012 profit forecast after posting third- quarter earnings that matched analysts’ estimates, buoyed by a gain in U.S. package volumes and international exports.

Full-year profit will be in a range of $4.55 to $4.65 a share, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. That compared with a previous projection of $4.50 to $4.70 a share. Analysts had estimated 2012 earnings would be $4.55 a share, based on a Bloomberg survey.”

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A slowdown in Europe and China has hurt earnings for $MMM and caused them to lower guidance.

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Dow Futures are off 136 bones as some bad earnings reports come in this morning.

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Of the 17 autonomous communities within Spain Moody’s decided to cut the investment grade of four due to poor liquidity conditions within the banking system.

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Asia

Europe

Emerging Markets 

“The Hong Kong Monetary Authority sold its own currency for a second time in a week to stem appreciation after it traded near the upper limit of a 29-year- old peg to the U.S. dollar.

The central bank bought $855 million at a rate of HK$7.75 per U.S. dollar, the authority said in an e-mailed statement today. That followed a $603 million intervention on Oct. 19, when it stepped into the market for the first time since 2009. The Hong Kong dollar was at HK$7.7503 as of 6:36 p.m. local time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with local financial markets closed for a public holiday.”

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Price declines are expected to hit earnings in China as the worst deflation since 2009 hits China…

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“Gold fell to a six-week low in London on speculation a stronger dollar will curb demand for an alternative investment. Other precious metals declined.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure against six major trading partners, climbed to a one-week high. Bullion has erased gains made after the Federal Reserve announced a third round of debt- buying on Sept. 13. The Fed concludes a meeting tomorrow. Stimulus measures taken by central banks from Europe to China helped drive gold to a 10-month high of $1,796.05 on Oct. 5.

“The dollar has been stronger and that’s one of the reasons why gold has been under pressure,”Afshin Nabavi, a senior vice president at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva, said today by phone. “It could be a healthy correction. It’s just a matter of time before gold can reach $1,800 an ounce.”

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WTI is firmly below $89 per barrel and Brent is finding more resilience due to global  political  risk.

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“The euro area’s 500 billion-euro ($652 billion) bailout fund faces another test as the European Union’s highest court weighs claims that the firewall violates EU law and should be banned in its current form.

A complaint by Thomas Pringle, an independent member of the Irish parliament, has reached the EU Court of Justice, which has the power to topple the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM. Pringle, the European Commission and European Parliament as well as EU nations including Ireland, Germany and France attended a hearing at the court today. A ruling is possible as soon as the end of the year under a fast-track procedure.”

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World Markets

Currencies

Commodities

USD Libor

Euribor

Yields for Italy, Spain, France,  and Germany …

The next Treasury secretary will confront problems so daunting that even Alexander Hamilton would have trouble preserving the full faith and credit of the United States.

Sometimes a few facts tell important stories. The American economy now is full of facts that tell stories that you really don’t want, but need, to hear.

Where are we now?

Did you know that annual spending by the federal government now exceeds the 2007 level by about $1 trillion? With a slow economy, revenues are little changed. The result is an unprecedented string of federal budget deficits, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and another $1.2 trillion on the way this year. The four-year increase in borrowing amounts to $55,000 per U.S. household.

The amount of debt is one thing. The burden of interest payments is another. The Treasury now has a preponderance of its debt issued in very short-term durations, to take advantage of low short-term interest rates. It must frequently refinance this debt which, when added to the current deficit, means Treasury must raise $4 trillion this year alone. So the debt burden will explode when interest rates go up.

Read the rest here.

“The Federal Reserve’s recent pledge to keep interest rates low until mid-2015 is having little impact on people’s inclination to borrow, says Bankrate.com’s senior financial analyst Greg McBride. He talks with Joan Doniger in MarketWatch News Break.”

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The company was offered $38 per share or 10% above where the stock went out on Friday….

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“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Facebook’s second earnings report as a public company lands Tuesday, but an even bigger milestone looms later in the week: On Thursday, many of its employees will officially become millionaires.

That’s the day Facebook’s main form of equity compensation — “restricted stock units” — convert into common stock shares. Facebook’s current and past employees hold 225 million of those units, worth around $4.3 billionbased on Friday’s closing share price.”

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