“Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. It can’t be done except by liars.” — Bernard Baruch

1. Obamacare helping health-insurance stocks — the Affordable Care Act appears to have so far proved beneficial to investors in health insurers Over the last 12 months. The top five publicly traded health insurance companies — Aetna(AET), WellPoint(WLP), UnitedHealth Group(UNH), Humana(HUM) and Cigna(CI) — have increased by an average of 32 percent versus the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index (SPX)has risen by just 24 percent.
2. Oil’s $5 Trillion Permian Boom Threatened by $70 Crude — Bloomberg, prices for West Texas crude have dropped below $100 a bbl. The Permian remains the largest U.S. oil producer, although it’s also the most expensive U.S. shale formation in which to drill, meaning the boom could become a bust if crude moves near $70 a bbl.
3. SAC Hedgefund to admit securities fraud and pay $1.2B — WSJ, SAC Capital will reportedly pay a penalty of $1.2B and plead guilty to securities fraud to settle a criminal investigation into insider trading. The fine would be the largest ever for such misconduct and SAC will also stop managing external money.
4. Spain ends two-year recession with 0.1% growth — BBC, Spain has seen its first quarterly economic growth since 2011, according to data from the country’s National Statistics agency INE. The country’s GDP grew 0.1% in the July-to-September period, after contracting for the previous nine quarters. The INE said an increasing number of exports supported the growth, with a boost to the tourist industry from holidaymakers avoiding northern Africa and the Middle East.
5. The latest Oct 29 – 30 Fed’s Policy Statement – December Taper Not Off the Table — WSJ, the Federal Reserve emerged from its October meeting effectively in a wait-and-see mode on the economy and policy, making few substantive changes to its statement. the Fed isn’t taking a December adjustment to the bond-buying program off the table. But that comes with the strong caveat that it depends on whether the economy is living up to its expectations.
6. S&P 1500 Most Heavily Shorted Stocks — courtesy of BIG, the latest figure released on Oct 15, 2013 shows the 36 stocks in the S&P 1500 that have at least 25% of their free-floating shares sold short.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: