Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Ukraine Leader Says Rebel Vote Plan a Threat to Peace. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in talks to form a coalition government after weekend elections, said Russia-backed rebels are threatening a fragile truce by planning to hold their own polls. “The quasi-elections announced by the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics don’t comply with the Minsk protocol and contradict its spirit,” Poroshenko said in a statement on his website today. “They’re threatening the entire peace process.”
• Ruble Weakens to Record on Concern Russia to Expedite Free Float. The ruble weakened to a record for the fifth day on concern Russia will quicken its move to a free float after more than $20 billion of interventions this month failed to halt the depreciation. The currency slid 0.6 percent to 47.7112 against the central bank’s target dollar-euro basket by 6 p.m. in Moscow, bringing this year’s decline to 19 percent. Ten-year government bond yields approached five-year highs as the Finance Ministry said it was scrapping its third straight debt auction.
• Goldman Sachs Says China Developers Still ‘Riskiest'. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says investors should avoid Chinese developer notes because they’re still the riskiest part of Asia’s bond market even as the debt recovers from the biggest selloff in 15 months.
• Euro Outflows at Record Pace as ECB Promotes Exodus. For European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, the price of a weaker euro to boost the economy and stave off deflation is a record exodus from the continent’s financial assets. Domestic and foreign investors spurred 187.7 billion euros ($239 billion) of fixed-income outflows from the euro area in the six months through August, the most in ECB data going back to the currency’s debut in 1999. That’s helped push the euro down 2.6 percent versus a basket of nine developed-market peers tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes this year, the biggest decline since 2010, when the euro-region debt crisis was taking hold. 
• Europe’s Glacial Growth Lowers Prospects for Job Seekers. Unemployment across the 18-nation region has barely budged from its high as companies questioning the durability of the recovery now find themselves hitting headwinds from weakening global trade. Confidence (EUESEMU) in the economy slipped to the lowest in almost a year this month and the unemployment rate remained at 11.5 percent in September, economists said before data due later this week.
• Honda Cuts Profit Forecasts as Japan, China Demand Slumps. Honda Motor Co. (7267), Japan’s third-largest automaker, forecast its first profit decline in three years as deliveries to China and Japan weakened. Net income will drop 1.6 percent in the year ending in March to 565 billion yen ($5.2 billion), the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today. That compares with the 600 billion yen the automaker forecast in April and would mark the first annual profit decline since the fiscal year ended March 2012.
• Europe Stocks Gain First Time in Three Days as UBS Jumps. European stocks rose, snapping a two-day drop, as Novartis AG and UBS (UBSN) AG rallied after posting financial updates and as U.S. consumer confidence surged to a seven-year high. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1 percent to 328.25 at the close of trading as 18 of its 19 industry groups rose.

Wall Street Journal:

• YouTube Considers Paid, Ad-Free Subscriptions. YouTube Seeks to Generate More Revenue.
• Fed Set to End QE3, but Not the QE Concept. Bond Buying Will Remain a Tool in the Central Bank’s Monetary-Policy Arsenal. Federal Reserve officials meeting Tuesday and Wednesday are virtually certain to end their latest bond-buying program, but they won’t be retiring the policy for good.
• Christie Calls Obama Administration’s Ebola Guidelines ‘Incredibly Confusing’. New Jersey Governor Says, ‘Our Policy Hasn’t Changed and It Will Not Change’.

MarketWatch.com:

• The biggest risk for U.S. investors is a China crash. 
• Here’s what the medical bills for Ebola look like.

CNBC: 

• FTC sues AT&T(T) for 'deceptive' and 'unfair' data throttling.
• The EU is one big welfare Ponzi scheme.
• Middle class feels worse off and pessimistic. (video)

ZeroHedge:

• US Homeownership Rate Drops To 1983 Levels: Here's Why. (graph)
• The Buyback Of Things: IBM(IBM) To Repurchase Another $5 Billion In Stock In Next Two Quarters.
• Spot The Odd "Market" Out (Again). (graph)
• The Stunning Difference Between "Income Expectations" And Reality. (graph)
• China "Ghost Town Index" - Here Are China's 10 "Ghastliest" Cities.
• California Leads Housing Slowdown As Case-Shiller Home Prices Decline For 4 Months In A Row. (graph)
• Core Capex Drops Most Since January; Durable Goods Orders Slide, Miss By Most In 2014. (graph)

Business Insider:

• A 160-Year-Old Bank Crashes, Warning That A New Economic Regime Is Here To Stay.
• Meet Lowe's(LOW) New Robot Retail Workers.
• 12 Big Cities Where Home Prices Are Sliding.
• All Of The Reasons Obama's Current ISIS Plan Is Doomed To Fail.

Interpreter Magazine:

• Putin’s Next Moves in Ukraine Won’t Be Pretty. Having failed to disrupt the Ukrainian elections, to gain support for pro-Russian candidates, or to provoke Ukrainians into voting for national extremists that Moscow could use to discredit Ukraine in the West, Vladimir Putin will be tempted to stir up more violence in Ukraine to keep that country from pursuing its European course.

Financial Times:

• China’s ‘new normal’ for consumption. While multinationals have been bleating about tumbling sales in China, official retail data from the world’s second-biggest economy tells a more robust story. What gives?

RIA Novosti:

• Russia to Build 13 Airfields, 10 Radars in Arctic. "Russia will build 13 airfields and 10 radars in Arctic to safeguard national security in the region," Russian military comments in Twitter post.

Austrian Press Agency:

• Nowotny Says Europe Should Prepare for 'Japanese Scenario'. ECB Governing Council Member Ewald Nowotny doesn't see growth rates of 3%-4% soon, citing comments. One should probably prepare for "Japanese scenario" with longer-term stagnation, Nowotny said. It's not exactly foreseeable when there'll be normal times for European economy again.