Earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 22.4% in the fourth quarter, according to data from Refinitiv, which would wrap up a record year where overall earnings soared around 49%. Meanwhile, 26 S&P 500 firms have already reported Q4 results, with 77% of them posting bottom-line results that beat analyst expectations. Reporting this week is Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, UnitedHealth, Procter & Gamble, Netflix, and Honeywell.

Fresh data out of China has shown economic growth slowing to a 4% pace in the fourth quarter, from 4.9% Y/Y growth in the Q3, weighed down by property market crisis and new coronavirus outbreaks. While that exceeded economists' forecasts, it was short of the 6.5% growth recorded over the same period in 2020.  Following the data, the People's Bank of China cut key interest rates for the first time since the peak of the pandemic in 2020.

Oil prices have breached $87 a barrel and hit a more than seven-year high, threatening to propel global inflation higher. The price for Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was up 1.3 per cent to $87.63 a barrel, the highest since October 2014. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, which has risen more than 13 per cent since the start of year.