Hi Folks.

Just a quick FYI, even though I made it through Milton with no problems, on Thursday I was struck by the curse of the meth fueled tree service, who took down a neighbors tree AND a junction box put on the pole by Spectrum to divert the internet signal to various homes, including mine. So I am without Internet once again, this time until late Tuesday at a minimum, and probably longer once the tech sees what kind of rat's nest nightmare or wires he needs to untangle and reinstall into a new cable box.

All that to say this: I am likely unavailable for questions or resending of any download links for a few days. So if you sent me an email and I have not yet responded, I am operating using free wi-fi from a local library, and they put 30 minute limits on it per day, so I can only get so much done in such a small window of time. So please be patient and I will get caught upas soon as the signal is back on at my house.

Here's this week's forecast:

Monday: We start the week with next to nothing. At 10:00 we get the Conference Board Leading Index number. This is one of those numbers that probably sounded like a good idea at the time: Take a bunch of other numbers from other sources, crunch them, weight them, and come up with a single number that really tells the story about what's going on in the economy over the last 30 days. The Conference Board does this for all the major economies. And the market universally ignores this number like it isn't even there. So no need to set an alarm to remind yourself about this one. We also have three different Fed Clowns yammering today, at 8:55 a.m., 1:00 and 5:05 p.m.

Tuesday: It's Groundhog Day in October. We have the Richmond Manufacturing Index at 10:00, which is slightly better than the New York version which dropped last week, but not as good as the Philly Fed number which comes out not this week, but this is Day Two of No News Worth Mentioning, which follows hot on the heels of the entire calendar from last week, so at some point we are going to see some massive moves take place when some otherwise worthless number drops. Will it be today? Or are traders essentially paralyzed waiting for both the US Presidential Election results, which thankfully will be available at some point on or after November 5th, and the next Fed Open Market Committee meeting, set for November 7th? Probably the latter, and our only number today will pass mostly ignored.

Wednesday: A little more going on today, but that isn't saying much. Existing Home Sales at 10:00, Crude Oil at 10:30 and the Fed's Beige Book at 2 p.m. Crude is the only number worth watching and only if you already trade crude. Existing Home Sales just doesn't move the needle, and the Beige Book isn't a number but a bunch of data you need to analyze before making any trading decisions. There is also a Fed Clown speaking at 9:00 a.m. because, of course there is.

Thursday: At least today we have a couple of real numbers for real traders. Unemployment claims comes out at 8:30 and as far as I know the Fed is still keeping some kind of eye on this one. So follow the trend after the number drops. At 9:45 we have Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI numbers, and these have been known to make some noise, especially when both come out at the same time. lately we've seen one number drop at 9:45 and the other at 10:00 a.m. and the market reaction to the split times has been muted. But today you should be ready once both numbers hit at the same time. New Home Sales is at 10:00 ( a non-event) and Natural Gas at 10:30 (only important to NatGas traders, of which I am not one). More Fed Speak at 8:45 (ignore).

Friday: Durable Goods (Core and Overall) at 8:30. This one has been a little schizo lately. Some months we see some actual trading activity after the release, and other times it's the FX version of crickets and tumbleweeds. So just pay attention at 8:30. At 10:00 we have the Revised UofM Consumer Sentiment and Inflation Expectations numbers. Another one of those "probably sounded like a good idea at the time" numbers that has never really caught on with traders. It also marks the last number of the week, so quit early and get a jump on the weekend.

See you next week (drug addicted tree cutters notwithstanding).

Jeff