• Moods improved at the beginning of a new week as new coronavirus variant Omicron is said to cause only mild symptoms

  • European and US equity futures trade above Friday’s closing prices
  • Stocks in Asia are trading lower, attempting to catch up with Friday’s moves in Europe and US. Nikkei drops 1.6%, S&P/ASX 200 trades 0.5% lower and Kospi drops 0.9%
  • OPEC decided to postpone 2 technical meetings from Monday and Tuesday to Wednesday and Thursday. Decision comes as OPEC wants to have more data on new Covid variant
  • According to NTV broadcaster, Japan may ban all visitors from entering the country. Australia is reviewing its border reopening plans. United Kingdom decided to reimpose mask mandate in shops and on public transport
  • Iran wants to boost oil production to 5 million barrels per day. Nuclear talks will resume in Vienna today
  • Japanese retail sales increased 0.9% YoY in October (exp. +1.2% YoY)
  • Australian inventories increased 4% QoQ in Q3 2021. (exp. +0.1% QoQ)
  • Chinese industrial profits increased 24.6% YoY in October
  • Bitcoin recovered during the Asian session after a weekend of sideways trading. The coin is trading near $57,500 at press time
  • Oil attempts to recover from a massive sell-off on Friday. Brent and WTI trade over 4% higher today
  • Precious metals and industrial metals gain as well
  • AUD, JPY and NZD are the best performing major currencies while CHF and EUR lag the most