Hello friends and Fortune readers.
Wall Street stock futures are TK this morning.
Today’s must-read story is by Fortune contributor Jean Chatzky on why your retirement could cost you an extra $25,000, and it has nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act or inflation. Read more here.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
1. Volkswagen heads before House committee.
Volkswagen’s U.S. chief, Michael Horn, and other leaders are scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee concerning the company’s evasion emission standards on its diesel cars sold in the U.S. Volkswagen admitted to rigging 482,000 diesel cars with software that allowed the vehicles to deceive emissions tests. The affected cars had a pollution level up to 40 times more than the top allowed limit. The scandal has reverberated through the company and may end in major job cuts.
2. Sepp Blatter’s reign at FIFA is (just about) over
Sepp Blatter’s 17-year reign over FIFA, the governing body of world soccer is effectively over, after the organisation suspended him and other officials in connection with investigations into alleged corruption. Blatter had in any case been due to step down early next year, but the 90-day suspension handed down Thursday all but ends the 80 year-old Swiss’s tenure immediately. FIFA also suspended Michel Platini, the head of the European soccer federation UEFA. Both have been named in a Swiss criminal investigation into irregular payments by FIFA.
3. Fed minutes released.
The Federal Open Markets Committee will release the minutes from its Sept. 16-17 meeting, providing more insight into the deliberations that went into putting off the interest rate hike. It will also reveal how worried policymakers are about the global slowdown and what effect it could have on the U.S. The minutes will drop at 2 p.m. ET.
4. Alcoa reports: earnings season begins
Metals company Alcoa (AA) reports its third-quarter earnings after the market close, signaling the unofficial launch of the latest earnings season for S&P 500 companies. The outlook for this round of earnings isn’t sunny, and many are expecting it to be the weakest season for big-cap companies in six years. Alcoa, in particular, likely suffered from plummeting aluminum prices due to huge supply in China last quarter and is expected to report profit declines from a year earlier.
5. The state of the U.S. job market.
Weekly new applications for jobless benefits likely fell for the week ending Oct. 3. Economists expect new applications to edge down to 274,000, signaling that the labor market might be doing okay despite a dismal jobs report and an increase in layoffs for September. The U.S. economy added only 143,000 new jobs last month, well short of the forecasted 200,000 new jobs.
