‘An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.’Winston Churchill

1. Larry Summers withdraws from consideration for Fed Chief — Mr. Summers has dropped out from the race to become the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, saying that “any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious,” and would not serve the interests of the Fed, the government or the economy. The remaining top contenders are Janet Yellen and Don Kohn, both of whom helped shape the Fed’s super easy money policy.
2. U.S., Russia agree to deal on Syrian chemical-weapons disarmament — Reuters, the U.S. and Russia have reached a deal whereby Syria will have a week to provide information about its chemical weapons and then until the middle of next year to let international inspectors destroy them. Mr. Obama stressed that force remains an option if Assad reneges and U.S. forces remain in position. Russia still opposes military action but now backs possible U.N. sanctions for non-compliance.
3. North American shale boom could go global — FT reported that countries such as Argentina, Russia and Algeria hold shale oil deposits that could be even more bountiful than the regions at the center of the U.S.’s energy revolution. The 23 most promising “tight” oilfields outside the U.S. and Canada have the potential to extract 5M bpd in the 2020s, a report from research firm IHS has estimated.
4. Fed decides not to ‘taper’ — MarketWatch, the Federal Reserve stuck to its massive bond-buying strategy last Wednesday, citing softer U.S. growth in a move that stunned financial markets. By a 9-to-1 vote, the Fed chose to keep buying $85 billion a month in debt and said it would wait for more evidence of economic progress. The bank cited rising mortgage rates and reduced federal spending as headwinds that “could slow the pace of improvement in the economy”.
5. JPMorgan faces $900M in fines, will admit wrongdoing in Whale case — JPMorgan (JPM) will pay in excess of $900M in fines and admit to wrongdoing in an effort to settle multiple investigations into the whale-sized blunder that took place in Q1 2012 at the firm’s London CIO office, the NY Times’ Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess reported. The government authorities across the settlement table reportedly are the SEC, the OCC, the Fed, and the Financial Conduct Authority in London.
6. September Starts Strong — September has historically been the worst month of the year for stocks, but this year the month has bucked the trend. All of the cyclical sectors are doing even better, with Industrial stocks leading the way with an average MTD gain of 8.34%. Materials and Technology are averaging the second and third best gains.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: