by Calculated Risk on 9/15/2013 08:41:00 PM

From the WSJ: Summers Withdraws Name for Fed Chairmanship

One leading candidate is Janet Yellen, the Fed's current vice chairwoman, who has garnered substantial support among Democrats in Congress and among economists. But the public lobbying on her behalf appears to have annoyed the president, say administration insiders, and may lead him to look elsewhere.

There is no way President Obama is that small of a person. Janet Yellen played no role in the lobbying on her behalf; it was spontaneous and widespread because she is an excellent choice.  She was the leading candidate long before any other candidate was ever mentioned.

From Ezra Klein at the WaPo: Five reasons Obama should name Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve

[T]he line from the White House has never been that Yellen is bad choice. In fact, they've been at pains to say she's absolutely terrific — an incredible candidate who they'd be thrilled to name ... Yellen ... is a consensus pick. She's Wall Street's favorite. She the monetary policy world's favorite. She's favored by congressional Democrats and organized labor. So far as anybody knows, she has nearly no enemies — at least outside the White House. It's rare that in a race that's been so angrily contested, either candidate can actually be a consensus pick. But because this race more or less pitted the White House's preference for Summers against the rest of the world's preference for Yellen, the Obama administration can end this with a pick most everyone is happy with.

Monday:
• 8:30 AM ET, the NY Fed Empire Manufacturing Survey for September. The consensus is for a reading of 9.0, up from 8.2 in August (above zero is expansion).

• At 9:15 AM, The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for August. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 77.9%.

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of Sept 15th

• FOMC Projections Preview: Some Modest Tapering is Possible

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: the S&P futures are up 19 and DOW futures are up 189 (fair value).

Oil prices have declined slightly with WTI futures at $107.30 per barrel and Brent at $110.68 per barrel.  Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices.  If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com