Thursday's Market Minute: Thursday+

Today kicks off the first of two days of OPEC and OPEC+ meetings in Vienna, Austria. The coalition of 13 oil-rich countries that control nearly 40% of the world’s oil supply is expected to make further cuts to production. At the first meeting of the year in June, members of OPEC decided to cut their countries’ oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day effective until March, 2020. Now, analysts expect to see an additional cut of 40,000 barrels per day to come out of the meetings, due to a weakening global outlook for oil demand, and increased supply in 2020.

However, deeper cuts depend on whether all of the members, namely Russia, can come to a consensus, which is still uncertain. In further oil news, the long-anticipated IPO of the world’s largest and most profitable company, Saudi Aramco, will be priced this afternoon to be listed on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange. In economic data, International Trade for October came in at a $47.2 billion deficit, compared to estimates of a $48.6 billion deficit.

There were 10,000 less Jobless Claims for the week of Nov. 30 than the previous week, lowering the 4-week moving average to 217,750. What else to watch today: the reaction to the International Trade and Jobless Claims reports, which may provide insight into Friday’s November jobs data after private payrolls fell short earlier in the week. FOMC member Randal Quarles speaks today at 10AM ET, and a few remaining companies are still on the earnings roster: Cloudera Inc CLDR, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc CRWD, Docusign Inc DOCU, and Ulta Beauty Inc ULTA come out aftermarket.

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