Thursday, October 30, 2008

[1]

Remember that second stimulus package that was making the rounds in early September? The American economy might be overstimulated enough already, but that hasn’t stopped our elected officials. Members of the House/Senate Joint Economic Committee meet on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET, with Democrats looking to get another check in your pocket. Pessimist in Chief Nouriel Roubini is among the presenters. Two possible pegs for discussion are third-quarter GDP numbers and last week’s jobless claims, which will both be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.

[2]

Excavators of land and sea declare quarterly earnings results on Thursday. Companies reporting include ExxonMobil, Shell, Marathon Oil, Imperial Oil, Apache Corp., and Chiquita Brands. Others declaring results are Unisys, Motorola, AstraZeneca, BASF, Expedia, Eastman Kodak, Timberland, Waste Management, Diebold, Colgate, Avon, CVS, Hitachi, British American Tobacco, and Unilever.

[3]

More government programs! News reports indicate that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Treasury could unveil a program on Thursday that would see up to $500 billion of homeowner loans guaranteed. Get your documents ready; the FDIC is at 550 17^th Street NW, Washington, D.C., 20429

[4]

Third-party presidential candidates representing the left (Ralph Nader) and the right (Bob Barr, Libertarian), plus the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin, debate in Cleveland on Thursday. Ohio’s still a swing state; will the pendulum string break altogether?

[5]

World powers continue their firefighting attempts on Thursday. The U.K. government holds talks with its banks.