“I made my money by selling too soon & never lost money by turning a profit” Bernard Baruch

1. China growth slows — China’s Q3 GDP rose 9.1% Y/Y, shy of expectations for 9.3%, and down from 9.5% in Q2. Though the numbers are relatively healthy, it marks the country’s slowest growth since 2009 and raises concerns that the eurozone debt crisis and general global malaise are taking their toll on China’s momentum.
2. New Mortgage Plan Floated by the government — State and federal officials are pushing a plan that could help some “underwater” borrowers get refinancing assistance in the latest government bid to break a legal impasse with big banks over alleged foreclosure abuses and ease problems in the housing market. The proposal was raised in a meeting last week between government negotiators and giant lenders as part of an effort to settle allegations of questionable foreclosure practices.
3. Lack of liquidity spooks traders — according to the WSJ, Hedge-fund traders and other professional investors are finding that a lack of liquidity is making it increasingly difficult to trade individual stocks without causing large price swings.
4. Country YTD performance — below is the chart of 78 countries performance courtesy of the Bespoke Investment Group.

5. Draft Proposes Fast, Flexible Bailout Fund — A draft of the guidelines seen by The Wall Street Journal outlines how the €440 billion ($605.44 billion) European Financial Stability Facility would implement the basic principles agreed by European leaders at the July 21 summit. The guidelines provide the EFSF with the ability to purchase sovereign debt directly from countries issuing new bonds or on the open market.
6. Citigroup settles with the SEC — Citigroup (C) will pay $285M to settle charges brought by the SEC that it misled investors in its sale of a mortgage bond deal. The SEC had been investigating whether Citigroup misled investors in the deal, a CDO created from other CDOs backed by subprime mortgages.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: