Economy

Paving the way for heavier international sanctions, Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro won a new six-year term on Sunday in an election deemed illegitimate by the opposition and foreign governments. The economy has been in recession since 2014, with the bolivar currency down 99% in the past year and inflation at an annual 14,000%, according to the National Assembly.

France is looking to see if the EU could compensate European companies that might be facing sanctions by the U.S. for doing business with Iran, according to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. "Are we going to allow the U.S. to be the economic policeman of the world? The answer is no," he told C News TV and Europe 1 radio. "We want to defend our economic interests."

Political instability in Italy appears to be coming to an end with a power sharing agreement between the Five Star Movement and The League. While both parties are due to present their deal to the country's president later today, such a government could raise concerns across the eurozone due to planned higher spending. Italy's main stock market index, the FTSE MIB, started the week more than 1.8% lower on the news.

The ISDA is devising an emergency contingency plan to prepare for the demise of Libor, which is tracked by some $370T of financial products worldwide. Many institutions have been unwilling to participate in the rate since the discovery in 2012 that some of the world's largest banks had manipulated the benchmark. Libor is expected to be phased out over the next few years and may disappear by 2021.

With Argentina on the brink of a financial crisis, the IMF has formally begun bailout negotiations, without any objection from the Trump administration. Such measures rarely advance without U.S. support. The peso has fallen drastically against the dollar, while the nation has been dogged by persistent budget deficits, high inflation and trade imbalances.

Opening up the United Arab Emirates... Nasdaq Dubai plans to start equity futures of leading listed Saudi Arabian firms, giving investors new hedging tools to take long and short positions on the shares. The UAE further plans to allow 100% foreign ownership in companies and grant long-term visas to some investors as the second-biggest Gulf economy seeks to attract more investments.

The average price of regular-grade gasoline in the U.S. is now $3.00 per gallon after jumping $0.10 over the past two weeks. Most expensive/cheapest in the nation? $3.79 in the San Francisco Bay Area and $2.54 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though prices at the pump are likely to be the highest since 2014, AAA is still projecting the largest Memorial Day weekend travel volume since 2005.