OPEC+ will resume talks today with a view to planning for 2021 and the continuation of output cuts to support the oil price in a time when demand is lower as the world recovers from the pandemic. A deal is expected to be reached for cuts of 7.7 million barrels per day which has seen oil trickle up overnight and trade around the $45.50 mark. The question mark will be on compliance to these cuts which had been a problem previously with some of the smaller member nations reluctant to cut their supply (OIL).

In corporate news, Salesforce (CRM) stock slumped after confirming its $27.7bn Slack (WORK) acquisition and setting out a lower than expected growth forecast. The cloud-based software company’s share price fell by 8.5% as, although it beat analyst earnings expectations, the firm said it expects Q4 revenues to be around 15% lower than analysts had anticipated.

Famine or feast day for S&P 500 sectors

The major US stock indices took a breather yesterday, with all three close to flat for the day. That overall result hides big disparities in performance between different sectors, with the S&P 500’s energy sector up 3.2% while the materials sector fell 1.4%. In the S&P, nine firms gained more than 5%, including cruise firm Carnival (CCL), Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Boeing (BA). Salesforce was the worst performer in the index, followed by home appliance company Whirlpool (WHR) which fell by 5.2%.

Tesla (TSLA) once again made headlines this week, after chief executive Elon Musk sent an email to employees on Tuesday warning them to control costs: “Investors are giving us a lot of credit for future profitability but if, at any point, they conclude that’s not going to happen, our stock will immediately get crushed like a souffle under a sledgehammer,” he said. Tesla stock made moves in after-hours trading yesterday, swinging from a 2.7% loss for the day into positive territory.

S&P 500: +0.2% Wednesday, +13.6% YTD (SPX, SPY)