This weekend, the biggest news came from Argentina. This is after Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart agreed to halt the trade hostilities as the two countries negotiates a deal that will be mutually beneficial to the two countries. As a result of the deal, the US will not increase tariffs it initiated in the last quarter to 25%. In addition, China agreed to start increasing purchases of American agricultural products. The two countries’ top representatives on trade will restart the talks with the aim of addressing the key pressing issues. These issues include the forced technology transfers, increased tariff and non-tariff barriers, and intellectual property theft. However, traders should be careful about their expectations. This is because such high-level talks early this year failed to yield any results.

Another big news this weekend was the death of George H.W Bush, who served as the 41st US president. He was also the father of the 43rd president, George Bush. Early this year, he lost his wife too. His death is important for the market because on Wednesday, the US markets will remain closed as traders observe his death. The NYSE, CME, and Nasdaq have all remained closed after a president dies.

The price of crude oil jumped after the deal announced between the US and China. WTI jumped to almost $54 a barrel while Brent moved above $60. Another big news was that Alberta announced a plan to cut production. Alberta is home to Canada’s oil sands. The government said that it will cut production by more than 325K barrels a day starting from January. This will be an 8.7% cut. The reason for this is to reduce the current glut in Canada’s oil industry and stabilize the price. While production in the region has risen, transportation has been a problem especially after the two pipelines – Keystone and trans mountain pipeline – have faced multiple challenges. The price of Canadian crude has reached at $15 a barrel. This week, traders will focus on the meeting of OPEC oil ministers that will take place in Vienna.

On Friday, the price of palladium soared to almost $1200 a ounce. This was a big news for the metal used as a catalytic converter in gasoline cars. This is because its spread with gold narrowed to less than $50. The metal is the best-performing this year having gained by more than 15%. From August, it has gained by more than 30%. Platinum on the other hand has been left in the dust. This is despite of the fact that the two metals are mined in similar countries and are used in similar activities.

Over the weekend, the talk of Brexit took a pause as Theresa May attended the G20 meeting. This week, she will continue her campaign for the deal in the hopes that her conservative MPs will vote for it. This will be unlikely because of the backstop issue and that of North Ireland.