Oil steadies near $71 after two-day rally

Oil prices steadied near $71 a barrel, taking a breather after a strong rally in recent days as Mexico was set to resume crude production following a major outage.

Goldman Sachs raises odds on U.S. Fed taper announcement in Nov

Goldman Sachs economists have raised the odds that the U.S. Federal Reserve will announce the start of tapering its bonds purchases in November, predicting the central bank will likely opt to dial back purchases by $15 billion then and at meetings that follow.

Japan’s private-sector activity hit by COVID-19 surge – PMI

TOKYO, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Japan’s factory activity growth slowed in August, while that of the services sector shrank at the fastest pace since May last year, highlighting the increasingly heavy toll a recent wave of COVID-19 infections is taking on the economy.

Marketmind: Gathering Clouds?

European stocks posted their biggest weekly drop last week since February. A large part of the reason behind the sharp drop is growing concerns over a slowing global economy, as well as increasing fears over rising infection rates and vaccine durability. Investors hoping for a bounce this week from a clutch of “flash” European manufacturing surveys for August out on Monday may be disappointed going by the recent softening trend in U.S. and Chinese PMIs.