Oil prices hit 11-month high; European stocks cheered by Georgia runoffs – business live

Oil prices hit 11-month high; European stocks cheered by Georgia runoffs – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

Markets are eagerly awaiting results from the Senate run-off elections in Georgia, with a double Democrat victory looking increasingly likely, which would hand them control of the upper house. Democrats already control the lower house, the House of Representatives.

A “blue sweep”of Congress could usher in a larger fiscal stimulus package and pave the way for president-elect Joe Biden to push through more corporation regulation and higher taxes. This has spooked the tech-heavy Nasdaq futures, which are down more than 1%.

Rev Raphael Warnock has defeated the incumbent Republican senator Kelly Loeffler (a Trump ultra-loyalist) to become the next Democratic senator from Georgia, according to AP. Warnock will become the state's first Black US senator ever. A second run-off race between the Democrat Jon Ossoff, a former documentary film-maker, and the Republican incumbent David Perdue looks to be close.

The oil market has been volatile and prices have hit an 11-month high after Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, agreed to reduce output more than expected in a meeting with the Opec oil cartel and other major producers (a group known as Opec+).