By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji

Global Markets

• Asia stocks slide as global growth worries deepen
• Asian shares down 0.2 pct, S&P 500 hits 14-mth low
• Fed seen raising rates, hinting slower tightening in 2019
• Investors look to Xi Jinping speech, China conference

Oil Markets

• Oil prices fall 3^rd straight session amid supply glut worries
• US shale oil output to top 8 mln bpd by year-end – EIA
• Brent crude oil futures down 1.2 pct at $58.90 per barrel (0340GMT)
• US WTI crude futures down 1.2 pct at $49.27 per barrel

Precious metals

• Gold prices steady in run-up to Fed meeting
• Spot gold little changed at $1,245.40 per ounce (0119GMT)
• US gold futures down 0.2 pct at $1,249.6 per ounce

Grains

• Soybeans mixed in quiet trade; corn, wheat slightly softer
• Most active CBOT wheat futures nearly unchanged at $5.32-1/2 per bushel (0321GMT)
• Most active corn futures nearly unchanged at $3.83-3/4 per bushel
• Most active soy futures nearly unchanged at $9.04-1/4 per bushel
• Most active rice futures down 0.1 pct at $10.57 per hundredweight

Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]

• Africa-Europe summit in Austria; started yesterday

Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]

• US says air strikes killed 62 militants in Somalia
• Canadian regulator to consider Katanga settlement proposal Tuesday
• France vows aid for Burkina Faso, but no more troops to fight Islamists
• Africa Crude – Angola’s February programme emerges, Nigeria’s awaited
• Gambia names international advisers to tackle debt, ministry says
• Eni, Shell knew of ‘sharks’ in Nigeria graft case – judge
• Fastjet suspends flights in Tanzania until the end of January
• Rediscovering truth: African storytellers tap into rich tradition
• Girls taken to Uganda, Tanzania for ‘vacation cutting’ as Kenya cracks down on FGM
• South African Naspers leads $540 mln investment in Indian tech startup
• Canadian regulator to fine Glencore-controlled miner over Congo – WSJ
• Ugandan shilling weakens on interbank demand
• Zimbabwe inflation soars to new 10-yr high of 31 pct
• Kenyan shilling firms against the dollar
• ‘Nobody will kneel’: Tigrayans defiant as Ethiopian leader cracks down
• Bowing out as president, Congo’s Kabila raises prospect of a return act
• Nigeria’s farmer-herder clashes have left over 3,600 people dead, Amnesty says

N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters