Morning Briefing: Oil slips below $50, markets lower

Oil slips below $50, markets lower
World equity markets have dropped so far Thursday as oil prices continue their downward trend on profit taking and higher US inventories.

US crude slipped below $50 overnight and some experts are highlighting a relatively low compliance rate among OPEC members for the agreed production cuts.

Asian indexes were down following a weaker Wall Street, the oil prices and data from China. Beijing’s figures show a sharp rise in producer prices while consumer prices slowed.
Shanghai led the negative results for Asia’s major stock indexes with only Tokyo finishing in positive territory, boosted by a weaker yen.

European markets are also lower as investors await the ECB’s interest rate decision and speech by its president Mario Draghi. 

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat. Canada’s house price index and a raft of US data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,855.73 (-0.33 per cent)	+3.39 per cent	+22.68 per cent
TSX Composite	15,496.98 (-0.72 per cent)	-0.77 per cent	+15.71 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,290.81 (-0.60 per cent)	+0.85 per cent	+18.62 per cent
German DAX	11,933.36 (-0.28 per cent)	+2.50 per cent	+22.73 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,426.94 (-0.63 per cent)	+0.90 per cent	+11.56 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,318.58 (+0.34 per cent)	+2.17 per cent	+16.08 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
52.29 (-1.54 per cent)	49.40 (-1.75 per cent)	1204.70 (-0.39 per cent)	U$0.7399
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7500

Small banks could benefit as Trump meets leaders
Donald Trump will meet with leaders of Main Street’s small banks Thursday in order to understand their issues relating to regulatory burdens.

Reuters reports that the bankers will include heads of 9 community banks and the heads of the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America.

The Trump administration wants to help the small lenders by relieving them of some of the tough regulation faced by the country’s largest lenders including those dubbed “too big to fail.”