By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Asian shares up on accommodative Fed; growth concerns
- MSCI Asia ex-Japan +0.5 pct
- China blue-chips wobble, Australia down
Oil Markets
- Oil eases from 4-mth high on global growth worries
- Brent down 3 cents at $68.47 a barrel (0040GMT)
- WTI down 7 cents at $60.16 a barrel
Precious metals
- Gold near 3-wk peak on dovish Fed; palladium at record high
- Spot gold up 0.3 pct at $1,315.81 per ounce (0114GMT)
- US gold futures up 1.1 pct at $1,316.10 an ounce
Grains
- Wheat prices fall from 3-wk high, fears over planting delays cap losses
- Most active CBOT wheat futures down 0.2 pct at $4.63-3/4 per bushel (0056GMT)
- Most active corn futures down about 0.1 pct at $3.71-1/4 per bushel
- Most active soy futures barely changed at $9.06-1/4 per bushel
- Most active rice futures up about 0.1 pct at $10.95 per hundredweight
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- South Africa human rights day
- Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed in the UAE, visited Qatar just before, as he tours the Middle East
- 2-day UN Western Sahara summit in Switzerland starts
- Trial of Nigeria’s suspended chief justice Onnoghen resumes
- Namibia independence day; Kenya’s Kenyatta attending
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Ghana successfully completes IMF programme
- Rescue teams race to save hundreds trapped by Mozambique cyclone
- Congo ebola outbreak spreads to city of Bunia
- UN to hold Libya conference in April to avoid military showdown
- Saudi king calls Morocco king to review ‘brotherly relations’
- Sudan to make 2 bln euros from container port deal – official
- Ethiopia to lead next stage of cockpit data analysis
- Sudan dissolves state-owned Sudanese Petroleum Corporation
- Soccer – Togo FA official Fagla gets life ban for bribery
- Zambia bans energy drink with male sex booster Viagra
- Tunsia president wants to amend constitution to dilute PM power
- Exxon’s talks to trap Algeria shale gas falter due to unrest – sources
- Nigeria’s NNPC issues 2019-2020 crude-for-product tender
- Algeria ruling party warns against leadership vacuum
- Nigeria to sell stakes in joint oil assets to boost coffers
- Sout Africa’s retail sales up 1.2 pct y/y in January
- Nigeria aims to cut joint venture oil stake to 40 pct this year – budget minister
- Algeria army says protesters have expressed “noble aims”
- Air strike kills 4 people in Somalia – relatives
- Zimbabwe tobacco output set to dip to 240 mln kg after drought
- Morocco phosphate miner OCP’s profit jumps 19 pct in 2018
- South Africa’s February inflation tame, central bank to keep rates pat
- Powerful Algeria party abandons beleaguered Bouteflika
- Kenya shilling weakens against dollar amid demand from energy sector
- South Africa’s FDI inflows reach 5-yr high in 2018
- South Africa CPI inches up to 4.1 pct y/y in February
- Mozambique starts 3 days of mourning after cyclone kills hundreds
- South Africa’s rand stutters as electricity crisis weighs
- Kenya police seize $20 mln of counterfeit banknotes from deposit box
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
