The Traderszone Network

U.S. crude was trading at $41.68 per barrel at 0000 GMT on Tuesday, virtually flat from its last settlement and down more than 10 percent since the start of November. “The focus for markets this week will be the 168th OPEC Conference on Friday and U.S. crude oil inventories. The market will now be expecting crude oil stocks to decline through to the end of the year, in line with seasonal patterns.

Specialty-apparel retailers enjoyed a pick-up in sales over the extended holiday weekend that began on Thursday as colder weather unleashed pent-up demand for winter clothing, Sarah Quinlan, a senior vice president at MasterCard, said in a sneak preview of an upcoming spending report by the company. Department stores, however, did not enjoy a similar boost, reflecting the segment’s ongoing struggles to attract consumers, Quinlan said. “All year long, department stores have remained very very challenged.

The market eased downward following the long Thanksgiving weekend, but these three stocks were lively. Find out why.

The stock market gave up ground Monday, and these three stocks suffered larger declines than the broad market. Find out why.

Australian Building approvals for October
+3.9% m/m,
– expected -2.5%, prior was +2.2%
& for the y/y, +12.3%
– expected +5.7%, prior was 21.4%
The ‘key points’ from the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

Australian data (building approvals on separate post)
BoP current account balance Q3: -18.1bn
– expected is -16.5bn and prior -20.5bn, revised from -19.0bn
Net exports as a % of GDP for Q3, 1.5%

The steady rise of Windows 10 should put pressure on the dominance of Google’s search engine.