Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said that when she becomes chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, she will rein in easing of banking regulation. "Make no mistake, come January, in this committee the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end," Waters said.

After a five-hour meeting, the UK Cabinet has decided to support a draft agreement governing the UK's relationship with the EU after Brexit, setting up Prime Minister Theresa May for the next hurdle: Parliament, where the deal faces opposition from within her party. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has resigned in opposition.

Public watchdogs Global Witness and Public Eye are pushing regulators for more scrutiny of the use of middlemen by large commodity traders, in an effort to stem corruption.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo will press for adoption of a proposal that would give swap execution facilities more flexibility in trade execution, despite opposition from two Democratic commissioners. "I will work with all my commissioners, Republican or Democrat, as much as I can, but I also intend to move forward," he said.

The European Securities and Markets Authority's proposed amendments to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation to help shift noncleared swaps from London to the European Union may be too narrow to overcome the hurdles of a post-Brexit mass swaps migration, experts say.

Industry associations, including FIA, are opposing the European Commission's proposed changes to the equivalence regime under Europe's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive as too restrictive to third-country investment services. "Limiting the ties between EU and non-EU market participants would be a backwards step for EU capital markets and their connection to the world," noted the statement.

The president's criticism of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy could harm the dollar, Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group said at the Global Financial Leadership Conference. "The concept that our central bank is independent from partisan politics is extraordinarily important to the stature of our currency in global markets and to the faith and confidence people have in the value of the dollar both domestically and abroad," he said.

The absence of upcoming elections allows China to be more patient than the US in trade talks between the two countries, and the US will "have to capitulate to some extent," CME Group CEO Terry Duffy said. "Trade deficits are not the worst thing" because they allow the US to be a "thought leader for the rest of the world because the rest of the people around the table are now clients of the United States," he said.

Mike Harris of Campbell & Co. said his firm went short on global stocks in the latter half of October because of macro risks, particularly US-China trade tensions. "You can't underweight the importance of whether or not the Trump administration [and] House Democrats will be able to get infrastructure done, get tax 2.0 done -- or will we have a lame duck for the next two years?" he said.

US oil and natural gas output climbed from 2014 levels to 9.3 million barrels per day and 83.4 billion cubic feet per day, respectively, in 2017, even as the well count dropped from a peak of 1.03 million wells in 2014 to 991,000 last year, reports the Energy Information Administration. The US is projected to account for half of global oil and gas output growth by 2025.

Major soybean exporter Argentina is now importing the crop as it responds to Chinese demand from non-US suppliers. It's a result of US-China trade tensions, low yields in Argentina and low prices for US beans.

Last week marked the longest downward stretch for oil prices since 1984. The market for crude is now in a bear phase and may be signaling a downturn in the global economy and other commodity markets.

The weather outlook is suddenly more frigid, raising the prospect of rising prices for natural gas over the heating season. Low stockpiles are another factor.

Several commodities -- including oil, copper and platinum -- failed to follow the recent stock market rebound, possibly signaling slower economic growth. Factors weighing on these markets include a strong dollar, rising interest rates and trade tensions.

Last week was a downer for copper, with prices sliding four out of five trading days in line with a wider slump across other commodities.

China passed South Korea as an importer of liquefied natural gas last year and is now on pace to surpass the European Union by 2040 and claim the world title, according to the International Energy Agency. In its World Energy Outlook, the IEA also notes the global gas trade is growing at a 2.3% annual clip.

Seeking a new direction in strategy, the OPEC and non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is looking at ways to cut production beginning in the new year. The panel noted that growing oil supplies are expected to exceed demand in 2019 as global growth slows.

By any measure, China's growth pace in the third quarter slowed only slightly, evidencing little effect so far from the trade dispute with the US. So far, that's good news for commodities, writes CME Group Senior Economist Erik Norland, but longer-term measures by Beijing to counter the trade effects may cut both ways, with the prospect of yuan devaluation the most ominous prospect.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is pushing the agency toward digitalization "to keep pace with the pace of markets." The CFTC needs "to take an 80-year-old statute and a 40-year-old agency and reform it for this new digital marketplace we are in, and it begins with understanding these changes," Giancarlo says.

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Commodities Insight SmartBrief will not publish Thursday, Nov. 22. Next week's edition will publish on Wednesday, Nov. 21.