“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” George S. Patton

1. Oil Slumps to Five-Year Low — Bloomberg, brent crude fell to a new five-year low as a number of banks, including Morgan Stanley cut price forecasts, saying oversupply would peak next year after OPEC decided not to cut output. WTI for January delivery also slumped, dropping as much as $1.25 to $64.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
2. Beijing Tightens Rules for Loans On Stocks — regulator banned investors from using low-grade corporate debt as collateral to borrow cash as Beijing took fresh steps to rein in growing risks in the country’s debt-laden financial system. Policymakers gathering in Beijing this week for a key summit are signaling to the investing public they should prepare for a lengthy period of slower economic growth after years of binging on debt to fuel high growth levels.
3. Retail Sales Grow the Most in Eight Months — MarketWatch, U.S. retail sales rose 0.7% in November, up from 0.5% in October, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. U.S. retail sales in November grew the fastest in eight months as shoppers snapped up everything from cars to clothing, according to the latest government data released.
4. Congress Reaches Deal for $1.1 trillion U.S. Spending Bill — a final agreement has been reached on a $1.1T U.S. spending bill that would prevent a government shutdown at midnight on Thursday and fund every government agency but the Department of Homeland Security through next September. The bill largely keeps fiscal 2015 domestic spending unchanged, but as the deadline loomed, a number of policy provisions were negotiated into the measure, including easing of regulations on the environment and financial derivatives trading.
5. Halliburton Lays off 1,000 Employees in Eastern Hemisphere — fuelfix, unrelated to its proposed $35B acquisition of Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has announced that it is laying off about 1,000 employees across multiple regions in the Eastern Hemisphere, effective immediately. The Middle East “seems to be the nexus of our current woes in terms of dropping prices and production,” CFO Mark McCollum told investors late last week.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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