"Oil posted the biggest decline in four months yesterday after Bush said he will give negotiations a chance to prevent sanctions against Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer," Bloomberg notes.  "Crude also dropped further today on expectations that a government report will show U.S. heating oil and gasoline stockpiles rose." 

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has forged a deal for regular talks with China about "the long-term issues arising from China's emergence as a leading economic power," says the Financial Times.  "The initiative dovetails with longstanding Chinese ambitions to elevate the US-China relationship into one unencumbered by the many difficult issues that divide them, such as piracy of intellectual property, the swelling trade imbalance and, to some extent, human rights."