Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Monday, September 26:

1. Markets turn their attention to U.S. presidential debate

With just around six weeks to go until the November 8 U.S. presidential election, the market will turn its attention to the first televised U.S. presidential debate Monday night.

The 90-minute debate will begin at 9:00PM ET (01:00 GMT on Tuesday) at Hofstra University in New York, with Lester Holt of NBC News as moderator. It is the first of three planned presidential debates.

Market participants are mostly expecting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and have not factored in the implications of a victory for Donald Trump. The idea of Trump in the White House is a worrying one for some investors who balk at his populist, unpredictable style.

Recent polls have shown a tightening race, with Clinton’s once-comfortable lead narrowing sharply. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll gives Clinton a 4-point lead, 41% to Trump’s 37%, among likely voters.

2. OPEC awaited as International Energy Forum kicks off in Algeria

The 15th International Energy Forum kicked off in Algiers on Monday with all eyes on theinformal meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia and other big Middle East crude exporters, such as Iran and Iraq, will meet non-OPEC producer Russia on the last day of the conference.

According to market experts, chances that the meeting would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal. Instead, most believe that oil producers will continue to monitor the market and possibly postpone freeze talks to the official OPEC meeting in Vienna on November 30.

An attempt to jointly freeze production levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran’s refusal to take part of the initiative, underscoring the difficulty for political rivals to forge consensus.

U.S. crude was up 32 cents, or 0.72%, to $44.80 a barrel during morning hours in New York, while Brent tacked on 30 cents, or 0.65%, to $46.78 a barrel.

3. Global stocks slide ahead of U.S. presidential debate, OPEC

U.S. stock index futures pointed to steep losses on Monday morning, with the Dow futuresfalling more than 100 points, as investors nervously awaited the first U.S. presidential debate and looked ahead to an important meeting of major global producers.

Meanwhile, European and U.K. stocks fell sharply in mid-morning trade, withGermany’s DAX down almost 2%, as investors trod cautiously ahead of the first U.S. presidential debate and an OPEC producers meeting in Algeria this week.

Earlier, Asian shares closed mostly lower, as investors’ attention turned from central banks to American politics ahead of the first U.S. presidential debate, as well as an upcoming informal meeting of OPEC producers.

4. Yen jumps after Kuroda remarks

In his first speech since the Bank of Japan’s decision last week to overhaul its radical stimulus program, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank remained ready to use every available tool to achieve its 2% inflation target, including cutting interest rates further into negative territory.

The dollar fell 0.5% against the yen to 100.47, moving back toward a one-month low of 100.06 touched last week.

The BOJ made an unexpected shift last week to targeting interest rates on government bonds as a way to reach its inflation target.

5. Deutsche Bank shares plunge to record-lows

In Frankfurt, shares of Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) sank 6.1% to an all-time low of €10.63. That drop came after Germany’s Focus Magazine reported over the weekend that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would not support providing state aid for the country’s largest lender.

Merkel also declined to intervene in Deutsche’s legal battle with the U.S. Justice Department, which earlier this month announced it may seek up to $14 billion from the bank to resolve investigations into crisis-era mortgage securities.

The article states that Merkel made her views clear in discussions with Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan.

Shares of the German banking giant are down more than 50% so far this year.

Source: Investing.com

Image: Reuters

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