“Prices are too high” is far from synonymous with “the next move will be downward.” Things can be overpriced and stay that way for a long time . . . or become far more so.” ― Howard Marks

1. Brent Crude Spikes to Fresh Four-Year High Near $81/bbl — brent crude jumped to its highest in four years overnight after the world’s biggest oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided against further increases in production, despite calls from Pres. Trump for OPEC to lower prices. At its last meeting in Algiers, OPEC said it was satisfied “regarding the current oil market outlook, with an overall healthy balance between supply and demand.” Brent spiked as much as 2.6% higher to $80.94 per barrel to its loftiest levels since 2014, while U.S. WTI climbed 1.8% to $72.06 per barrel, its highest since this June.
2. EU Plans Route To Do Business with Iran Without U.S. Sanctions — the EU will establish a special payment channel allowing companies to legally continue financial transactions with Iran without exposure to U.S. sanctions. The mechanism would facilitate payments related to Iranian oil trade, exports, and imports. The details of the mechanism will come after future meetings with technical experts. The special purpose vehicle was jointly announced by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
3. Ontario Expected to Unveil Cannabis Law — expectations on Ontario that a new legalization law will be unveiled on Sept 28 ’18. Ontario is the only province that hasn’t created guidelines for how cannabis will be sold in brick-and-mortar retail shops, despite the province accounting for more than 40% of all cannabis usage in the nation last year. An announcement isn’t anticipated until after the market closes today, which could lead to more speculative trading on Aurora Cannabis (OTCQX:ACBFF), Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC), Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY).
4. SEC Sues Elon Musk For Fraud, Seeks Removal from Tesla — the SEC sued Elon Musk for fraud and sought to remove him from Tesla Inc(TSLA). It sued Mr. Musk in Manhattan federal court, alleging he “had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source,” according to the lawsuit. U.S. law forbids public-company executives from making false statements or misleading investors about information that is material to an investment decision.
5. U.S., Japan Agree to Trade Talks; Japan Avoids U.S. Auto Tariffs For Now — President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Abe have agreed to start trade talks in an arrangement that for now protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs. As part of the agreement, Abe said the U.S. would not impose additional tariffs on the auto sector, while also protecting the politically important farm sector from access that goes beyond the terms in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that Trump abandoned last year. U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer said the talks would occur in two “tranches” with hopes for an “early harvest” from the initial talks on lowering trade barriers.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: