Round Two is a Draw

The second presidential debate turned into a no-holds-barred attack by Donald Trump on Hillary Clinton, as the GOP nominee tried to shift focus away from the recent leaked tapes. The tension between the two was palpable from the very start, when no handshakes were exchanged when they met at centre stage. When asked to comment on the tapes, Trump aggressively denied having ever kissed or grabbed women without their consent, instead sniping that his crude words paled in comparison to how Bill Clinton treated women. The third and final presidential debate is slated to take place on October 19th. While the market reaction was largely muted, the Mexican Peso, which is viewed as a strong barometer of election sentiment, continues to gain ground versus the dollar after multiple Trump gaffes soured his probability of winning the Presidential race.

WTI crude prices felt added pressure during early Asian trade after the Russian Energy Minister remarked that his country will not commit to signing an output cap deal with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries during this week’s World Energy Conference in Istanbul. OPEC had agreed late last month to slash between 200,000 and 700,000 barrels per day of their output to ease the global oil glut. However, doubts about the sincerity of the cartel members were further sparked when reports suggested that Iran and Iraq would not be turning up in Turkey. Although the deal in Algeria was cheered on by oil markets, the proposal has only been agreed upon in principle with many hurdles remaining. Crude futures for November delivery were last trading at $49.30 a barrel, down over -1.00% while Brent futures were down -0.80% to $51.51 a barrel.