Europe delays decision, Japan's trade moves back into surplus

Reuters reports that some progress was made in resolving Europe's debt crisis over the weekend.

European Union leaders made some progress toward a strategy to fight the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis on Sunday, nearing agreement on bank recapitalization and on how to leverage their rescue fund to try to stop bond market contagion.

But final decisions were deferred until a second summit on Wednesday and sharp differences remain over the size of losses private holders of Greek government bonds will have to accept.

So we will have to wait for Wednesday for something more concrete.

In the meantime, there was positive news from Japan on Monday, which reported that exports rose 2.4 percent in September from a year earlier. Exports had risen 2.8 percent in August.

Imports rose 12.1 percent but this was down from the 19.2 percent increase in August. As a result, the trade balance moved into a surplus of 300.4 billion yen in September after having seen a deficit in the previous month.