Economy
Japanese stocks fell today, drawing little momentum from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's landslide win in a snap election over the weekend. The Nikkei closed down 1.6% at 17,099, as oil prices sank overnight, hitting energy and commodity stocks and exporters. The win for Abe ensures further reflationary economic policies ahead, but record low voter turnout points to broad dissatisfaction with his performance.

Australia's government has forecast its budget deficit to swell to A$40.4B ($33.2B) in the year to June, from an initial estimate of A$29.8B, as falling global commodity prices opens a gaping hole in tax revenue. The new estimate dashed government hopes of returning to surplus within the next five years. Despite the mid-year budget update, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said its triple A rating for Australia was not immediately affected.

Hong Kong police began clearing the last pro-democracy protest site in the city today, as the territory's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, declared an end to the encampments that have blocked the city’s roads for more than 11 weeks. Plans for the clearance were announced on Saturday. The protests drew well over 100K people at their peak as students demanded electoral reforms and free elections.

China’s economy may slow to 7.1% in 2015 from an expected 7.4% this year as a sagging property sector weighs on the world’s second-largest economy, researchers from the nation’s central bank said. Stronger global demand could boost exports, but not by enough to counteract the impact from weakening property investment. China’s economic growth came in at 7.3% in Q3, its slowest pace in five years.

Lifting the threat of a government shutdown, the U.S. Senate passed a $1.1T spending bill over the weekend that will fund every federal agency through next September except the Department of Homeland Security. The bill, which included a rollback of Dodd-Frank banking reforms, passed by a vote of 56 to 40. The measure will now go to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law before federal spending authority expires at midnight on Wednesday.

Brent crude and WTI have turned sharply around after tumbling to fresh 5-1/2 year lows overnight on OPEC's announcement that it will not cut output even if prices fall as low as $40/bbl. The rally is pushing European shares higher. Brent crude is up 1.1% at $62.55, after hovering close to $60/bbl yesterday. WTI fell below $57 last night, but is now up 0.7% at $58.22 per barrel.

Stocks
As the largest private-equity buyout of 2014, PetSmart (NASDAQ:PETM) has agreed to sell itself to a BC Partners-led group for $8.7B. Under the deal’s terms, the consortium will pay $83/share, about 6.8% higher than PetSmart’s closing price on Friday and about 39% higher than the closing price on July 2, the day before activist investor Jana Partners emerged as a major shareholder. BC edged out rival buyout firm Apollo Global Management (NASDAQ:APOL) in the auction.

Just two months after being stripped of his chairman post, Bob Evans' (NASDAQ:BOBE) Steve Davis has announced that he's stepping down as CEO effective immediately. The company's recent performance under Mr. Davis has failed to meet the expectations of the board, said Mary Kay Haben, its nonexecutive chair. Bob Evans named two top execs, Mark Hood and Mike Townsley, to fill the office of the CEO until a replacement is found.

Keurig Green Mountain is moving most of its U.S. coffee buying operations to Switzerland, after forming a new corporate entity called Keurig Trading GmbH there this past fall. "The core of our green bean coffee procurement for our global manufacturing operations will take place in Switzerland," said a Keurig (NASDAQ:GMCR) spokeswoman, although she declined to comment on whether low taxes were a factor in the decision.

Workers at five of Amazon's nine distribution centers in Germany have started a fresh three-day strike today aimed at better pay and conditions. The walkouts are set to run until the end of Wednesday's late shift, posing problems for the online retailer's deliveries for the holiday season. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) employs almost 10K warehouse staff and more than 10K seasonal workers in Germany, its second-largest market behind the U.S.

Sony Pictures has cancelled the production of several films due to the cyber attack which has left it unable to process payments, The Times of London reported over the weekend. On Saturday, hackers released a seventh cache of files leaked from the studio, along with a promise of a "Christmas gift" that would "put Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE) into the worst state." The cyber attack has so far revealed four films, medical records, countless email threads, and salary details of Hollywood stars.

Despite ignoring the NHTSA's demand to expand its recall nationwide, Takata (OTCPK:TKTDY) has begun enforcing tighter quality controls on a group of parts suppliers, Reuters reports. Over the last two months, the company launched a series of inspections across its supply network and dispatched managers to parts makers in Japan and Asia to implement new changes. Takata's exploding air bags have caused five deaths and a recall of more than 20M vehicles globally since 2008.

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are looking to replicate their iron ore strategy in the copper business, squeezing out high-cost producers by injecting more of the red metal into an oversupplied market. Separately and in joint ventures, Rio (NYSE:RIO) and BHP (NYSE:BHP) intend to mine millions of additional tonnes of copper, confident in the coming years that copper will be in short supply.

Today's economic calendar:

8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
9:15 Industrial Production
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
4:00 PM Treasury International Capital

Notable earnings after today's close: FCEL, PAY, WG