New York State

*PATIENT IN NYC TESTS POSITIVE FOR EBOLA, NEW YORK TIMES SAYS, EBOLA PATIENT GIRLFRIEND QUARANTINED: CNN
*TREASURIES ADVANCE, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100 FUTURES EXTEND DECLINES ON EBOLA REPORT

Cuomo: "There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed..." *HAVE IDENTIFIED 4 PEOPLE IN CONTACT WITH EBOLA PATIENT, PATIENT WENT ON 3-MILE JOG, BOWLING, SUBWAY

Dr Craig Spencer, 33, who returned to the U.S. ten days ago from Guinea, was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in midtown Manhattan on Thursday and is being cared for in isolation. The doctor flew to Africa on September 18 to treat patients in Guinea with non-profit organization, Medecins San Frontieres (MSF).  On October 16, he checked in at a hotel in Brussels, Belgium, presumably on his return journey from Guinea to the U.S. 

Statement On Suspect Ebola Case From Dr. Howard Zucker, Acting Commissioner, New York State Department of Health

"Despite the robust investment returns since 2004, annual growth in unfunded pension liabilities has outstripped these returns," Moody's warns in its latest report on the state of public pension systems. As Bloomberg reports, the 25 biggest systems by assets averaged a 7.45% return from 2004 to 2013, but liabilities tripled over the same period leaving them facing a $2 trillion shortfall as investment returns can’t keep up with ballooning obligations. The top 25 funds account for 40% of the entire US public pension system with Illinois, Kentucky, Connecticut, and Louisiana at the top of the 'most underfunded' list.

What will $1 million buy in New York City? A diamond-encrusted Cartier men’s watch. A small fleet of 2014 Bentley Continentals. Or maybe your very own parking spot in SoHo... "Parking is in serious demand and has proven an excellent investment with no sign of a decline."

• Ferguson at Turning Point After Night of Relative Calm (BBG)
• Gaza war rages on, Hamas says Israel tried to kill its military chief (Reuters)
• Surge in Putin Patriotism Masks Pain of Sanctions (BBG)
• Bank of England splits over rate hike for first time in 3 years (Reuters)
• Putin Meeting Leaves Kiev With Tough Choices (WSJ)
• European Gas Reverses Biggest Drop Since 2009 on Ukraine (BBG)
• "Isolation"  Mongolia Seeks Economic Lifeline With Pivot to China, Russia (BBG)
• Uber Picks David Plouffe to Wage Regulatory Fight (NYT)
• China Levies Record Antitrust Fine on Japanese Firms (BBG)

Forget Hong Kong, London and New York: when it comes to the pinnacle in absolute real estate insanity - perhaps in all of history - look no further than James Bond's favorite gambling mecca, Monaco. It is in this tiny Riviera principality where we find the Tour Odeon, a double-skyscraper being built by Groupe Marzocco SAM near Monaco’s Mediterranean seafront, which will contain a 3,300 square-meter (35,500 square-foot) penthouse with a water slide connecting a dance floor to a circular open-air swimming pool. The description is nice, but it is the bottom line that is mindblowing: Bloomberg reports that the apartment may sell for more than 300 million euros ($400 million) when it goes on the market next year, French magazine Challenges reported. That would make it the world’s most expensive penthouse, according to broker Knight Frank LLP.

• Yellen Dashboard Warning Light Glows as Millions Work Part Time (BBG)
• More US drones boosting global GDP: Unidentified war planes, explosions heard in Libyan capital (Reuters)
• London Home Asking Prices Plunge Most in More Than Six Years (BBG)
• Carney - Rate Hike before Pay Recovers (Times)
• No Fed fireworks, but plenty of clues, expected at Jackson Hole (Reuters)
• Kurdish, Iraqi forces in control of Mosul dam (Reuters)
• China Pushes Cleanup of Banks (WSJ)
• Russia Widens Ruble Trading Band in Move Away From Managed Rate (BBG)
• Dollar General Makes $9.7 Billion Family Dollar Counterbid (BBG)
• Autopsy finds unarmed teen killed by police was shot six times (NYT)
• Bull Market Waning as Barclays Sees 1% Gain for S&P 500 (BBG)
• Credit Suisse Caught Up in Espírito Santo Mess (WSJ)

• Obama says Missouri shooting death tragic, reflection needed (Reuters)
• U.S. Weighs Iraq Rescue Mission to Save Yazidis (WSJ)
• Maliki says Abadi's appointment as Iraqi PM 'has no value' (Reuters)
• Iran Joins U.S. in Backing Replacement for Iraq’s Maliki (BBG)
• Kurds Push Attack in North Iraq as Maliki Clings to Power (BBG)
• Obama Donors Embrace Corporate Inversions He Criticizes (BBG)
• Syrian Forces Advance on Aleppo, Rebels Fear Another Siege (WSJ)
• Israel, Palestinians pursue Gaza deal with ceasefire clock ticking (Reuters)
• Ebola Drug’s Success Bolsters Approach for Other Diseases (BBG)
• With Natural Gas Byproduct, Iran Sidesteps Sanctions (NYT)
• Kazakhs to Hoard Food as Putin Sanctions Rattle Alliance (BBG)

Let's take a look at the amount of settlements/fines from various banks and financial institutions around the world since the crisis.

If NYS Superintendent of Financial Services Lawsky's proposed BitLicense was applied to the Internet in 1994, Goldman Sachs & JP Morgan would be controlling your ability to read this post right now and Google, Facebook and Twitter would not exist

File this one for the bizarro files. After Barclays was caught lying to its "sophisticated" clients about how it handles their order following the lawsuit by NY AG Schneiderman, the bank, having suffered an epic 75% collapse of trading volume in its dark pool, has decided to fight back and earlier today filed a motion to dismiss the dark pool complaint against it. Its main argument, as reported by the WSJ, is that the attorney general's complaint "fails to identify any fraud, establishing no material misstatements, no identified victims and no actual harm." In other words, Barclays alleges the dark pool participants were smart enough to figure out Barclays was lying to them when it promised their order flow wouldn't be offered up to predatory algos.

The Untold Story In the NSA Spying Scandal: Blackmail

• Fighting erupts in Ukraine as crash investigators arrive (Reuters)
• Russian Billionaires in ‘Horror’ as Putin Risks Isolation (BBG)
• Israel kills militants entering from Gaza, death toll tops 500 (Reuters)
• The other Gaza: In violent weekend, at least 40 people shot in Chicago (Reuters)
• Barclays Dark Pool Drew Early Alarms (WSJ)
• Finance Industry Bonus Hit in Poll as Revenue Disappoints (BBG)
• Severstal to Sell North American Units (WSJ)
• Yum, McDonald's apologize as new China food scandal brews (Reuters)
• Yellen Wage Gauges Blurred by Boomer-Millennial Workforce Shift (BBG)
• Ukraine Offers to Hand Over Malaysia Airlines Probe to Dutch (WSJ)

Despite a full court press of PR to confirm HFT firms are friends of retail investors and do no wrong; the SEC, it appears, sees it differently. While Mary White has confidently explained the market is not rigged, her agency is now actively seeking tips, complaints, or referrals that show, as The Chicago Tribune reports, evidence of abuse of order types, as well as traditional forms of abusive trading like "layering" or "spoofing" and other issues relating to high-frequency trading that might be violations of the law. Here are the 10 firms (including poster child holy-grail trader Virtu Financial) that the SEC is probing... can you spot the oddly missing one...