From Reuters.com

The Day Ahead: Tuesday

Sportswear giant Nike is expected to report first-quarter results, while Washington financial regulators will be busy with meetings all week.

*Nike reports first-quarter results. The company expects revenues to be lower than in its year-ago quarter amid the sluggish worldwide economy.

*The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board meets to propose a plan to replenish its deposit insurance fund.

*The Securities and Exchange Commission holds a two-day public meeting on short-selling, borrowing of shares and whether more disclosure is needed.

*At the Reuters Global Restructuring Summit being held in New York and London, speakers include Jones Day Head of Global Restructuring Practice and Bankruptcy Attorney Corinne Ball and Morgan Stanley Managing Director Simon Parry-Wingfield

The day ahead: Thursday

Investors will eye FedEx and Palm quarterly results for signs of strength as well as data from the housing sector.

*  FedEx reports fiscal first-quarter earnings before the bell. The package delivery giant is expected to benefit from stabilizing freight volumes as well as lower fuel prices.

*  Palm reports fiscal first quarter results, in which it will probably give details on sales of the Pre smartphone.

*  Housing starts and building permits are expected to have risen modestly in August.

*  The SEC meets to discuss rules to improve oversight of the credit rating industry.

Questions (and few answers) after Freddie CFO suicide

David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of troubled U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead in his suburban Virginia home after apparently committing suicide.

Kellermann, 41, was named Freddie Mac’s acting CFO last September after the Treasury Department seized the company, and its sibling mortgage agency Fannie Mae, as the agencies faced deep losses on a crashing U.S. housing market that was rapidly engulfing other financial institutions.

The death of Freddie’s acting finance chief follows several high-profile suicides that have been linked to the global financial collapse. German billionaire businessman Adolf Merckle threw himself in front of a train in January after heavy losses on the stock market. In December, Frenchman Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, co-founder of money manager Access International, was found dead in a New York office building, reportedly distraught over losing up to $1.4 billion in client money to Bernard Madoff’s fraud.

Unanswered questions In March, Freddie Mac said that it was cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an investigation and that employees have been interviewed by investigators.

A 16-year veteran of Freddie Mac, Kellermann had played a key role in helping the firm navigate accounting scandals and answer questions from regulators and investors who put the company under intense scrutiny as the U.S. housing market ended a five-year boom in 2006.

“Freddie Mac knows of no connections between this terrible personal tragedy and the ongoing regulatory inquiries discussed in our SEC filings,” said David Palombi, the executive communications officer for the mortgage finance company. Attorney General Eric Holder said he had no idea whether the apparent suicide of a senior official at Freddie Mac was related to investigations of the troubled mortgage giant.

Bonuses and private security According to the neighbors and company officials who spoke to the New York Times, Kellermann had received a bonus of about $800,000 a few weeks back, on the heels of a public outcry over executive compensation. According to neighbors, Kellermann hired a private security firm after reporters approached his house to ask about his bonus.