“The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.” — Warren Buffett

1. GE to IBM Ending Retiree Health Plans in Historic Shift — Bloomberg, America’s biggest employers, from GE, IBM and Time Warner Inc. (TWX) are increasingly moving retirees to insurance exchanges where they select their own health plans, an historic shift that could push more costs onto U.S. taxpayers. While retiree health benefits have been shrinking for years, the newest cutbacks may quickly become the norm.
2. Japan Wins Olympic bid & GDP update sends Tokyo higher — the Nikkei jumped 2.5% after Q2 GDP growth was revised up to 3.8% from a prior reading of +2.6% and Tokyo won the bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The improved GDP number was fueled by a more positive read on capital expenditures, while it also increased the chances that the government will go through with a hike in sales tax. Also, the Olympics is forecast to boost the economy by ¥2.96T ($30B) over the next seven years and create 150,000 jobs.
3. Chinese industrial-output growth increase — the latest industrial data shows the country’s economy is stabilizing and will avoid a hard landing. The industrial-production growth accelerating to 10.4% on year in August from 9.7% in July and beating consensus of 9.9%.
4. Large Banks Face Physical Commodity Curbs — WSJ, the Federal Reserve is expected to publish guidelines that would restrict banks’ involvement in physical-commodities businesses. The new rules, which would be designed to limit banks’ risky activities, could accelerate the withdrawal of JPMorgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) from sectors such as metals warehousing and power generation.
5. Government shutdown begins to loom as funding bill delayed — the House Republican leaders postponed a vote that would have approved the financing of the government through December. The delay came because of opposition among conservative Republicans to parts of the legislation related to the funding of Obamacare, which they want to strip out. The government faces a shutdown if legislation isn’t approved by September 30. Democrats and Republicans also have until mid-October to agree on measures to lift the debt ceiling.
5. Druckenmiller, noted HedgeFund Manager on Bloomberg TV interviews

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

This entry was posted on Monday, September 16th, 2013 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.