Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

Oil Talks Snag
A panel of OPEC+ ministers couldn’t reach an agreement on whether to delay January’s oil-output increase, leaving the matter unresolved before a full meeting of the cartel and its allies on Monday. Most participants in an informal online discussion on Sunday evening supported maintaining the production curbs at current levels into the first quarter, said a delegate. Yet while Russia spoke in favor of postponing the supply hike that’s currently scheduled to happen in the new year, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan were opposed. Unless the agreement is revised this week, they will restart about 1.9 million barrels a day of halted output, potentially pushing the global market back into surplus and undermining the recent surge in crude prices.

Market Open
Stocks in Asia are poised for gains as investors monitored progress on the path to a coronavirus vaccine on the final day of a record month for global equities. Oil is in focus. Stock futures traded higher late Friday in Japan and Hong Kong. On Sunday, the U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the federal government hopes to quickly review and approve requests from two big drugs makers for emergency approval of their Covid-19 vaccines. The pound ticked higher in early trading as Brexit talks continue. 

Erratic Covid Rules
As Hong Kong battles a new wave of coronavirus infections with yet another round of social restrictions, a sense of fatigue with the confusing and inconsistent nature of the city’s pandemic response is setting in among business owners and residents. Though the Asian financial center has thus far been relatively unscathed, the city has encountered more waves than most other places and is entering its fourth round of stop-start restrictions.

Bankers for the Rich
JPMorgan plans to double the number of private bankers serving Chinese clients from Singapore over the next two years, signaling its ambition to tap growth from Asia’s second-largest wealth market. The U.S. bank currently has more than a dozen relationship managers serving Chinese customers, said James Wey, the new head of Southeast Asia private banking. JPMorgan, ranked seventh among private banks in Asia excluding onshore China. Singapore is popular among the world’s rich to park funds, buy property and set up family offices. 

Vaccine Workhorses
Airlines are facing the "mission of the century": distributing Covid vaccines. Lufthansa, one of the world’s biggest cargo carriers, is preparing its depleted fleet for the gargantuan task of airlifting millions of doses. The airline began planning in April in anticipation of the shots that companies including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca are developing in record time. Laid low by a Covid-19 outbreak that’s decimated passenger demand, airlines will be the workhorses of the attempt to eradicate it, hauling billions of vials to every corner of the globe. ​

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Source: Bloomberg