The stock market resumes trading today after ending last week on a sour note. Poor corporate earnings reports pounded the stock market Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 200 points, or 1.5 percent, for its worst day in four months. Futures trading suggest gains this morning
- International stock markets were mixed as traders unnerved by last week's disappointing U.S. corporate earnings results waited for another round today. Monday. Benchmark crude oil rose and remained above $90 per barrel. The dollar fell against the euro and rose against the yen.
- This week should bring some new insight into the health of the economy. Federal Reserve policy makers will offer their latest assessment on Wednesday, after a two day meeting on interest rates. And at the end of the week the Commerce Department will provide an update on overall economic output in its report on the third-quarter Gross Domestic Product.
- Japan's trade deficit widened in September as exports plunged 10.3 percent from a year earlier, weighed down by Europe's debt crisis and a surge in antagonisms with China that have damaged close economic ties. Central bank governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a quarterly meeting of the bank's regional managers that the world's third-largest economy is "leveling off." He warned that the risk of shocks to the financial system from the debt crisis in Europe remains high and slowing global growth is hitting manufacturing and exports.
- Global high seas piracy worldwide fell to its lowest level since 2008 over the first nine months of this year as navies and shipping companies cracked down on attacks off the coast of Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau said 233 attacks were recorded worldwide in the first nine months of this year, down from 352 in the same period last year.
