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