Oevrnight

The mess at Deutsche Bank casts a wide and well-deserved shadow late last week as Asian shared opened Monday higher. Four of five of the major markets, since some were closed for holiday, were up with one down, the Kospi at 23593.55 off -1.21%. The Nikkei  was up 1.18% at16644.05, the ASX 200 climbed 0.82%, the Hang Send rallied 1.27% and the Shanghai composite edged up 0.23%.

Though rumors floated that an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle their threatened $14 billion fine had been cut, it was later questioned as mostly MSM puff to keep a lid on the investor panic button. Deustche is Germany's largest bank and their only global one, a bank that for years has been trying to break the global monopoly of big U.S. banks like Goldman Sachs. In addition, Italy just jumped into the fray over the weekend accusing DB of similar charges involving improper selling of mortgages that date to 2008.

The Bank of Japan's third-quarter Tankan survey was the other bit of news investors seemed to focus on if ever so slightly since the results for big Japanese manufacturers' confidence came in flat and the service-sector declined to its lowest level in almost two years. Meanwhile, Tokyo's bank index rallied 1.6%, mostly on favorable rumors about a Deustche bank settlement some were pegging at $5.4 billion.

The dollar/yen changed hands at 101.34 in early trading and oil futures was trading down 0.79 percent at $47.87 per barrel while Brent futures were trading lower by 0.70 percent at $49.84 with
oil prices in September gaining, pushed up by an announcement late in the month from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it would aim to cut output. Brent crude settled up 4 percent for the month and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 8 percent. Investors will have to apparently wait until November to get the actual numbers for the alleged cut in production. Gold was down slightly at 1315.20.