United States

Jim Grant, author of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, first hinted last week that not all is well when it comes to the world's biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio's $160 billion Bridgewater (of which one half is the world's biggest risk-parity juggernaut). Speaking to Bloomberg last week, Grant said he was "bearish" on Bridgewater because founder Dalio has become "less focused on investing, while the firm lacks transparency and has produced lackluster returns."

Update (10:10 am ET): Continuing the theme of attacking NBC for spreading "fake news" and hearsay, President Donald Trump in a tweet accused the network of making up yet another unflattering story about Trump and his relationships with his most senior advisers. He blasted NBC's report as a work of "pure fiction" invented "to demean."

And, ratcheting up his feud with the network, Trump questioned if it might be appropriate to revoke the network's broadcasting license, adding that the network's shoddy reporting is "bad for the country."

More than a week after Stephen Paddock carried out the deadliest mass shooting in US history, Las Vegas Police and the FBI still have few clues about what motivated the millionaire semi-retired professional gambler to murder 59 people, and – perhaps more disturbing – no idea why he ended his reign of terror after just 11 minutes.

S&P500 futures point to a slightly lower open, as Asian stocks rise to trade near decade highs, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing at highest since 1996. European stocks are little changed, with Spanish shares gaining after Catalan President rows back from an immediate declaration of independence. MSCI's all-world stocks index briefly hit a fresh record high in opening European trading as a 1.5% jump in Spain's IBEX added to a 10-year high set by Asian shares overnight.

North Korea is preparing to fire multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18, the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily reports, citing an unidentified person. According to the newspaper, the U.S. and South Korean militaries have recently spotted about 30 Scud rockets being moved from Hwangju, south of the capital Pyongyang, to a missile maintenance facility in the western coastal city of Nampo.

More from the report, google translated: