10 things you need to know in markets today
Saudi Arabia has unveiled its plans to end the nation's dependence on oil. In an interview with Al Arabiya news, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled the Vision 2030 plan, which aims to curtail the kingdom's "addiction" to oil.
It's a busy day for US economic data. On Tuesday, we'll get a flash PMI reading for the USA's services sector, as well as the latest numbers on consumer confidence, and manufacturing data from the Richmond Fed.
There have been numerous "cyber incidents" involving bank transfer network SWIFT. SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers on Monday that it was aware of "a number of recent cyber incidents" where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system, Reuters reports.
Oil is gaining. Crude oil futures rose early on Tuesday, pushed up by a weaker dollar and a flood of new cash into the market, but analysts warned that fundamentals remain weak as a producer race for customers heats up in the Middle East. At just after 6:30 a.m. BST (1:30 a.m. ET) Brent crude is trading up by 0.68%, while WTI is 0.8% higher.
Asian stocks are slipping. Asian stock markets are falling Tuesday ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings, as commodity prices run out of steam, dragging on big miners. Just after 6:45 a.m. BST (1:45 a.m. ET) Japan's Nikkei is off 0.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng has slipped 0.67%.
British banks are struggling to keep with their European counterparts. Profits at the UK's five biggest banks are still running at roughly 63% below their 2007 high, while profits at their European competitors were just 34% lower in 2015 than in 2007, according to an analysis by the Financial Times.
France has won a huge contract to build Australia's new fleet of submarines. French naval contractor DCNS won a $39 billion contract to build Australia's next generation of submarines on Tuesday, beating competition from Germany and Japan, for the country's biggest ever defence procurement programme.
Brexit could provide a short term boost to the City of London's lawyers. If Britain votes to leave the EU, it will need huge numbers of lawyers and negotiators to negotiate the UK's exit. Most of these will be found in the capital. "London probably possesses the largest global concentration of such ability in its legal and financial-services firms" according to a report from parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, cited by Bloomberg.
Spain is set for a new general election. Spanish political leaders meet King Felipe on Tuesday for a final round of talks to resolve a four-month-old political stalemate, but with a successful outcome unlikely, the stage could be set for a new election.
North Korea is preparing to launch a new missile. North Korea is believed to have placed a new, powerful mid-range missile on standby for an impending launch, according to a news report in the country, cited by the Associated Press.