(London)

The Brexit situation seems to be getting worse and worse (or maybe better and better, depending on where you stand). In an embarrassing defeat, PM Theresa May just lost a Parliamentary vote regarding her Brexit deal which now gives Parliament the right to vote on any final deal. Parliament also ordered her government to release the legal advice they had received regarding the departure from the EU, an unorthodox move that shows a lack of faith in the PM.

FINSUM: What this means is that Parliament now essentially has the right to block Brexit, or call for a second referendum. Sterling plummeted on the news.

(New York)

Markets and the global economy got some very welcome news this weekend. On the sidelines of the G-20 conference, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi came to a “truce” in their trade war spat this weekend after what they both called a “high successful meeting”. Accordingly, several industry-specific stocks should react well to the news. These stocks are: Stanley Black & Decker, Caterpillar, Emerson Electric, AGCO Corporation, and 3M.

FINSUM: Many of these stocks already have big tariff-driven headwinds in their 2019 outlooks, so the possibility for big reversals seems likely. A lot of gloom had already set in, which means there is significant upside.

(New York)

Here is an eye opener- by some measures this was the worst year for markets in at least a century. Through early November, 89% of assets had delivered losses for the year, the worst market wide performance in a 100 years, according to Deutsche Bank. However, with the new truce between China and the US, many assets are moving into the black for the year. Also, the jump in oil bodes well for the energy sector as well as high yield bonds.

FINSUM: A lot of the near-term gloom got cleared up this weekend, and it seems possible that markets could have a nice end-of-year bull run.

(New York)

December is usually a very good time to go with momentum stocks. What has been doing well the previous 11 months seems likely to continue in December, so says Barron’s. Momentum investing as a style has been well-founded in studies, but what is less well know is that it is particularly strong in the last month of the year. In fact, the momentum effect for stocks in December is 10x greater than in the other months of the year! Interestingly though, the effect is completely reversed in January, when tax-loss selling is concluded. With that in mind, here are some stocks to look at in the new year (the losers from this year): General Electric, Cognex, Dentsply Sirona, Western Digital, Adient, Bristow Group, McDermott International, Owens & Minor, Synnex, U.S. Silica Holdings, and Winnebago Industries.

FINSUM: This is quite an interesting angle as the losers from one year usually fall hard in December and then perk up in January.

(Houston)

Oil has been falling for several weeks, with prices dipping below the $50 mark for US crude. However, over the last couple of days, the price of black gold has surged. Investors may be left wondering what it all means. The answer is that Saudi Arabia and Russia announced their intentions to work together on another output cut, which sent prices surging. On the sidelines of the G-20, the Saudis and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend their output cuts. At the same times, Canada announced a curb on production.

FINSUM: Just as we have been saying, current movements in oil are particular to the sector and not indicative of the wider economy.