Before the Bell: Rain on Wall Street

What a week. Events are again conspiring to ruin Wall Street’s weekend, and stock futures are pointing down.

Where to begin? Well, the outcome of the $700 billion bank bailout has become as cloudy as the skies over Manhattan, and some say the uncertainty threatens to derail the financial system, not to mention tonight’s presidential debate.

And all the politicking and hand-wringing is taking place amid the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. The government shut down Washington Mutual and sold its assets to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

St. Louis Fed president James Bullard is speaking on the U.S. economy today, and you can bet he’s got a lot of interesting material to work with.

The dollar is down against an index of major currencies. U.S. Treasuries are mostly higher. Oil prices are lower.

Data on tap includes a final reading on second-quarter gross domestic product growth and a report on consumer sentiment.

In mergers and acquisitions, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China says it’s eager to expand in the Middle East - but it’s wary about the United States.

- Lisa Von Ahn