Despite the Dubai World distraction, the Street is very much focused on U.S.-based events:
1) Ben Bernanke will be grilled on his nomination at the Senate Banking Committee this Thursday, and while no one doubts he will be renominated the game will be to watch his aggressive defense of an independent Fed.
2) the Senate begins debate on Health Care this week, and already Republican Senators were on the Sunday talk circuit urging the Senate to postpone the entire debate until next year, which would kill the whole initiative.
3) the President's Job Summit on Thursday will be carefully scripted, but expect some to bring up the possibility of a second stimulus package geared exclusively toward job creation.
4) there is some nervousness about the economic data: it's likely November NonFarm Payrolls will continue to show improvement (loss of 190,000 jobs expected), but the October unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is unlikely to drop.
_____________________________
- The Dow 30 in Real Time
- The CNBC Stock Blog
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates US Health Care System
- Regulators List Systemic Risk Institutions
_____________________________
Questions? Comments? tradertalk@cnbc.com