Iraq

Hopes that the US-backed operation would retake the ISIS stronghold in Mosul are reportedly fading. After nine weeks, Iraqi troops and their allies have failed to make significant progress in liberating Iraq’s second-largest city from ISIS despite outnumbering the terrorists ten-to-one. US generals are now preparing to deploy more American ground troops in Iraq, pending the approval of President-elect Donald Trump and the new Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis.

The US Secretary of Defense has said that the American military forces and its coalition allies need to stay in Iraq, even after the terrorist group ISIS has been defeated. Ashton Carter said terrorist groups were headed towards a lasting defeat but the US-led coalition, which has purportedly been striking Islamic State positions in Iraq since 2014, had to stay and keep training local security forces to ensure the group does not rise again Press TV reports: “But there will still be much more to do after that to make sure that, once defeated, ISIL stays defeated,” the Pentagon chief said.

With the last day of OPEC pre-negotiations almost over, the latest from Vienna is that Iran and Iraq appear to have softened their positions ahead of a crucial OPEC meeting on Wednesday, however as the WSJ reports, "it may not be enough to satisfy Saudi Arabia’s demands for a broad-based oil-production cut."

The two main wildcards remains Iran and Iraq, the latter of which has agreed to use independent estimates of its output at 4.55 million barrels a day, however Iraq has said it would only freeze from that level, not cut. 

One day ahead of OPEC's much anticipated meeting in Vienna, oil has slid back under $46 on rising pessimism that an oil production cut deal, taken widely for granted as recently as last week, is not going to take place.

Here is the latest rundown of events heading into the Wednesday meeting.

European stocks were little changed and oil fell as investors assessed declining prospects for an OPEC deal and risks from Italy’s referendum. Asian stocks declined, while S&P futures pointed to a fractionally higher open, erasing 3 points from yesterday's drop.

Trader attention today - and tomorrow - will be focused on oil which retreated back under $47 as OPEC members failed to bridge differences on production cuts, while a rally in metals ran out of steam. The rand plunged after President Jacob Zuma survived a leadership threat.