Oil tops $60

The price of crude oil jumped this week and briefly breached $60 per barrel in afternoon trading on Friday on the back of optimism that OPEC will extend its output cuts to the end of 2018. In contrast, the industrial metals fell sharply on Friday, dragged down by the stronger dollar and probably some investor profit-taking. Next week will be busy. The Fed’s policy meeting on Wednesday could provide some insight into whether the majority of officials still support a December interest rate hike. But this could be overshadowed by the imminent announcement of President Trump’s nomination for the next Fed Chair. Staying with the US, we expect a 350,000 rebound in October non-farm payrolls (Friday), as the negative impact of the hurricanes is reversed. Elsewhere, the official and unofficial October manufacturing PMIs for China are due to be published on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. We expect slightly lower readings.