Business

Following news over the weekend of cancelled meetings, Saudi dropping out, and disagreement over who will bear the brunt of any cuts, oil prices had faded notably (testing towards a $44 handle). But then, someone unleashed the algo-friendly 'O' word and prices spiked... Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi is optimistic a deal will be reached - sending WTOI up close to $47 and into the green from Friday's close.

The day and week is young, expect the headline hockey to continue.

Greek banks have proposed a series of measures to combat tax evasion, strengthen the electronic transactions and limit the use of cash in the economy, and as KeepTalkingGreece.com reports, one of the measures proposed is a special tax on cash withdrawals.

 Bankers reportedly stress that cash money can easily and largely be channeled in the black economy. Therefore, a tax on cash withdrawals will drastically reduce cash transactions and by extension the black economy.

One day after Saudi Arabia raised the prospect that Wednesday's OPEC summit in Vienna may conclude without a deal (which also was spun as optimistic as the market would still revert to "equilibrium", however it was unclear at what price), OPEC members tried on Monday to rescue a deal to limit oil output as tensions grew among the producer group and non-OPEC member Russia.

The details of any Trump growth plan may not be available for a long time, but the general sentiment that Trump's fiscal spending boost will be good for global growth was enough for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which on Monday said that U.S. and global economic growth would be boosted by increases in spending and tax cuts promised by the President-elect. However, the OECD also cautioned that those gains would be lost if he pressed ahead with threatened tariff increases that triggered retaliation.