10 things you need to know before the opening bell
President Obama said it was an act of terrorism. In a rare Sunday night address from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama discussed the US efforts to to address the recent spate of violence, for which terrorists have claimed responsibility. "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it," Obama said. "We will destroy ISIL and any other organization who seeks to harm us."
France's far-right, anti-immigration party is on the rise. "France's hard-right Front National have just made history, storming to first place in the country's regional elections," Business Insider's Mike Bird writes. "The exit polls on Sunday evening showed FN in first place, on 30.6% of the vote. The two mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties racked up 27% and 22.7% respectively. For the first time ever, the country seems likely to have at least one region controlled by the hard-right, anti-immigration and populist party."
The Electrolux-General Electric appliance deal has fallen through. Sweden's Electrolux said its $3.3 billion deal to buy GE's appliance business has fell apart after GE terminated the agreement. "Electrolux has made extensive efforts to obtain regulatory approvals, and regrets that GE has terminated the agreement while the court procedure is still pending," Electrolux said.
German industrial output whiffs. Industrial production in Europe's largest economy climbed by just 0.2%, which was well short of the 0.8% expected by economists. The wake of low energy prices appears to be the main cause of the disappointment.
Chipotle warned sales are tanking amid an E. coli scare. In a regulatory filing on Friday, the burrito chain forecast that its comparable sales will fall by between 8% and 11% in the fourth quarter. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has investigating E. coli cases linked to Chipotle. From management: "Sales trends during the quarter so far have been extremely volatile. Future sales trends may be significantly influenced by further developments, including potential additional announcements from federal and state health authorities."
Greek parliament passed an austere budget for 2016. "The Greek parliament approved a 2016 budget featuring sharp cuts in spending and some tax increases to satisfy the country's international lenders at a time of growing austerity fatigue," Reuters' Karolina Tagaris reported. "The budget makes 5.7 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in public spending cuts including 1.8 billion from pensions and 500 million from defense. The savings are greater than this year's 1.5 billion euros. It also included tax increases of just over 2 billion euros."
Insiders explain why the European Central Bank failed to deliver a more dovish package. "Hints by Mario Draghi ahead of last Thursday's ECB rate meeting that the euro zone may need another big injection of money backfired, stiffening the resolve of more conservative central bankers who criticized him for raising expectations too high, sources familiar with the discussions said," Reuters Balazs Koranyi and John O'Donnell. "The European Central Bank President and his chief economist Peter Praet stoked expectations with dovish speeches in the weeks before the meeting but the ECB's Governing Council concluded that markets needed to be disappointed this time because the economic outlook has improved and new inflation forecasts were not as bad as feared, the sources said."
The BIS warns of 'uneasy calm.' Claudio Borio of the Bank of International Settlements warned about the market's behavior ahead of the Federal Reserve's plans to raise interest rates. "Calm has reigned over financial markets, but it has been an uneasy calm," Borio said. "There is a clear tension between the markets' behavior and underlying economic conditions …At some point, it will have to be resolved. Markets can remain calm for much longer than we think. Until they no longer can."
China can't find two top brokerage executives. "Citic Securities Co. said it has been unable to contact two executives, adding to deepening turmoil at a brokerage that is being investigated amid a government probe into China's stock-market rout," Bloomberg News reports. "Chen Jun and Yan Jianlin, both members of the company's eight-person executive committee, its highest decision-making body, can't be reached, the Beijing-based firm said in an exchange filing on Sunday. Chen is head of Citic Securities' investment-banking business, while Yan leads investment banking at its international unit. All operations at China's largest brokerage by market value are normal, it said."
Not much data. At 3:00 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve will publish its October consumer credit report. Economists estimate credit balances increased by $19.0 billion during the month. Read more in Business Insider's Monday Scouting Report.