Market News

Harvey was the strongest storm to hit the US since 2004 as it struck near Rockport as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm has hit a cluster of refineries that process 5 million barrels of oil a day. Its path through the gulf shuttered 24 percent of oil production.

On Tuesday President Donald Trump has threatened to bring the US government to the brink of a shutdown if needed in order to put pressure on Congress to fund the border wall that was on the 2016 political agenda. Democratic lawmakers have objected to his plans to construct the wall on the US Mexican Border.

President Trump faced criticism from inside his party this week due to the remarks he passed whereby he equated neo-Nazis to counter-protesters in Virginia and that he failed to personally denounce white nationalists, neo-Nazis and others who held a rally in Virginia that ended with a driver of a car slamming into pedestrians.

The United States has remained technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Tensions in the region have risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two ICBM tests in July. On Wednesday North Korea said that it is considering plans for a missile strike on the US Pacific territory of Guam,

Venezuela which is an oil rich country is going through a crisis. On Sunday Nicolas Maduro has cast his ballot to elect a new, all-powerful “Constituent Assembly” and promises to end his country’s crisis by rewriting the constitution.

There are no big plans by OPEC and its allies to change the supply deal even if the price of oil remains at $50 a barrel. In a meeting held in Russia it was discussed there are no plans to cap the oil production from Nigeria and Libya which currently are exempt from the current agreement.

On Monday Republicans in the US Congress were in chaos after a second attempt to pass a health care bill collapsed as two republican senators did not support the latest version of the bill. President Trump is calling for an outright repeal of Obamacare and others seeking a change in direction toward bipartisanship.

President Trump on Thursday arrived in Paris after an invitation to meet Emmanuel Macron for the July 14 Bastille Day military parade and the commemorations of the entry 100 years ago of US troops into World War One.

World leaders are meeting in Hamburg for the G20 summit with talks starting on Friday with an informal session on terrorism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will chair the two-day summit.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has opened up about the bank’s aggressive stimulus policy and fueled expectations that the ECB will announce a reduction of stimulus later this year.

Oil prices have come under pressure over the past month from rising production in the United States, Libya and Nigeria. In the US data released on Friday showed a record increase in the number of oil rigs

After failing to win an outright majority in last week’s election Theresa May tries to unite the Conservative party before commencement of Brexit talks by reappointing most of her ministers, brought a Brexit campaigner and party rival Michael Gove into the government.