By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Asia stocks quiet, dollar firm after upbeat US job data
- Stocks subdued after Wall St’s mixed Friday performance
- China markets closed all week for Lunar New Year
Oil Markets
- Oil prices slip, but tightening supply outlook supports
- Brent down 24 cents at $62.51 a barrel (0122GMT)
- US WTI down 20 cents at $55.06 per barrel
Precious metals
- Gold slips on firm dollar, robust US jobs data
- Spot gold down 0.3 pct at $1,314.47 per ounce (0123GMT)
- US gold futures down 0.2 pct at $1,320.1 an ounce
Grains
- Soybean prices fall after hitting highest since June, wheat eases
- Most active CBOT soybean futures contract down 0.1 pct at $9.16-3/4 per bushel (0130GMT)
- Most active wheat futures down 0.1 pct at $5.23-3/4 a bushel
- Most active corn futures unchanged at $3.78-1/4 per bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Kenya nurses go on strike today over allowances
- Trial of suspended Nigeria chief justice Onnoghen to resume
- Africa mining indaba in Cape Town starts (4-7 Feb); Ramaphosa keynote speaker
- Malawi presidential candidates begin presenting nominations today
- South Africa SACCI business confidence data for Jan-19 due [prev. 95.2]
Key African events or data releases over the weekend & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Egypt to consider longer presidential term – lawmaker
- Egypt hosts Palestinian groups, urges calm with Israel
- South Africa disappointed after Western powers criticise policy in memo to Ramaphosa
- Egypt’s short-term dollar debt drops to $14 bln – finance ministry
- Egypt unveils ancient burial site, home to 50 mummies
- CAR reaches peace deal with armed groups
- Sudan PM says protesters’ economic demands are legitimate
- Nigeria vice-president survives chopper crash weeks before election
- South Africa’s EFF party says in election manifesto to nationalise mines
- Russia sailors held in Cape Verde on suspicion of smuggling 9 tonnes of cocaine
- Suicide car bomb explosion in Somalia leaves casaulties – police
- Sudan man dies in detention after protests – family members
- Belgium to take in Ivory Coast ex-president Gbagbo – Belga
- East Africa nations approve individual trade pacts with EU if joint deal not reached
- 4 Libya soldiers die in first clash of forces’ southward push
- Ivory Coast ex-president Gbagbo freed by Hague court
- After Nigeria army abandoned town, Boko Haram slaughtered at least 60
- With mood volatile, Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa denies rift with deputy
- Africa Crude – Angolan nearly sold out, Nigerian offered at high levels
- Emerging central banks’ tightening cycle grinds to a halt
- Long persecuted, Tanzania albinos find acceptance growing slowly
- Board of South Africa state pension fund resigns as scandal deepens
- South Africa’s finance minister to name interim PIC board next week – spokesman
- South Africa’s Eskom narrows funding gap with $1.1 bln loan
- At fresh protests, Sudan police fire tear gas at demonstrators
- Insecurity throws Nigeria election preparations into disarray
- Emerging markets pull in $51.1 bln in January, highest in 12 mths – IIF
- Nigeria’s pan-African bank UBA expands to Mali
- Zambia fires CEO of state mining investment arm ZCCM-IH
- Morocco set for fuel price caps by mid-March – minister
- Uganda seizes ivory, pangolin scales worth an estimated $8 mln
- Anadarko signs long-term deal with CNOOC for Mozambique gas
- Egypt M2 money supply growth slows to 13.3 pct in December – c.bank
- South Africa Absa PMI falls in January as business activity slips
- Kenya shilling firms against the dollar
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
