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The Senate and the House remain out of session, and there are no relevant committee hearings planned in either chamber of Congress. Similarly, there are no government agency meetings of interest planned this week.
However, securities regulators and Wall Street executives will meet in Washington this week to discuss changes to equity market structure, including a pilot program to test ways to boost trading in smaller stocks. Speakers includeU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Daniel Gallagher, SEC Trading and Markets Director Stephen Luparello, and chairman and CEO of Finra, Richard Ketchum.
When Congress returns Nov. 12, after the midterm elections, we expect a lame-duck session mostly free of controversial legislation, although if President Obama pushes for confirmation of a new attorney general to replace the departing Eric Holder, things could heat up in the Senate.
Lawmakers will have to address spending, with the current stop-gap spending bill set to expire Dec. 11. It is unclear if the two chambers will be able to agree on an omnibus spending bill to carry through until the end of the next fiscal year or if they will punt it to the next Congress by passing another short-term "continuing resolution."
Other items on the congressional to-do list include reauthorizations of defense and intelligence operations, terrorism risk insurance and extensions of several dozen tax breaks ("extenders"), which lawmakers have continually promised to address during the lame-duck session. The House and Senate's widely diverging approaches to extenders, with the House looking to extend a select few permanently and the Senate preferring a two-year extension of all the provisions, signal tough negotiations ahead.
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