• President Donald Trump will hold a "cut the red tape" event at the White House on Monday, highlighting the administration's efforts to eliminate what Trump sees as burdensome government regulation of private businesses.
The event will "highlight the president's broader initiatives on regulatory reform," a senior administration official told reporters on Friday, and show that "the regulatory burden is being lifted, that agencies are working hard at accomplishing the president's directives, and that this is making a difference both to the economy and to job creation."
Trump will not announce any new initiatives, merely emphasize what's already being done. Later in the day, 10 federal agencies will hold breakout sessions to discuss specific actions they're taking to roll back regulations.
• U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed the prospect of talks with North Korea as a waste of time a day after his own secretary of state said the United States was maintaining open lines of communication with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump wrote on Twitter, using his sarcastic nickname for Kim and seeming to contradict the top U.S. diplomat.
• Apologizing for a June election when she lost her Conservative Party's majority, Prime Minister Theresa May responded to her critics on Sunday by saying she had the right strategy to lead Britain and win a Brexit deal.
• Catalonia's regional leader opened the door to a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain on Sunday after voters defied a violent police crackdown and, according to regional officials, voted 90 percent in favor of breaking away.
Despite Spanish police using batons and rubber bullets to disrupt the banned referendum, which was declared unconstitutional by Madrid.
• Oil prices fell on Monday, pausing for breath after posting gains of as much as 20 percent in the third quarter, after a survey pointed to a slight increase in OPEC production in September.
U.S. crude was down 14 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $51.53 a barrel at 0637 GMT. The U.S. benchmark on Friday posted its strongest quarterly gain since the second quarter of 2016 and the longest streak of weekly gains since January.
Global benchmark Brent crude for December delivery was down 23 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $56.56 a barrel. On Friday, Brent for November delivery closed 13cents higher at $57.54 a barrel, notching up a third-quarter gain of around 20 percent, the biggest gain in five quarters. It was the biggest third-quarter increase since 2004.
Oil output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also rose last month, gaining by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd), a Reuters survey found.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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