Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed to potentially freeze oil production at January’s levels, helping lift crude off its recent lows and improve global market sentiment.

After a week-long holiday, Chinese markets re-opened last Monday with the Renminbi rising to its strongest vs the USD after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) set fixing at 6.5118.

Data from the Developed World varied, although Japanese GDP contracted by 0.4% in Q4-15, and OECD revised its world growth forecast for 2016 down to 3.0%, from 3.3%.

Minutes of January meetings for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and European Central Bank (ECB) delivered little additional information. The tone of the FOMC analysis of coincident economic data was constructive, but there was growing concern about the implications of the recent financial turbulence. ECB discussions focused on the rising risks to growth and inflation forecasts, reinforcing expectations of a March easing.

Events in the UK have been dominated by the deal PM Cameron reached with the EU. It paves the way to the 23 June referendum, splitting the Conservatives; reducing Cable this morning to 1.41.

Brazil was downgraded by S&P for a 2nd time in less than six months to BB, from BB+.

Thanks to our friends at London & Capital