By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Caution grips Asian shares before Fed minutes, seminar
- MSCI ex-Japan near flat; Nikkei falls 0.4%
- Trump says he had to ‘take China on’
- Eyes on Fed minutes, Jackson Hole meeting for rate outlook
Oil Markets
- Brent oil rises above $60, buoyed by US inventory drawdown
- API data shows bigger-than-expected drop in US crude inventory
- US warns Iran tanker not to deliver oil to Syria
- Weekly EIA inventory at 1430 GMT
- Brent up 0.2% at $60.16 a barrel (0136GMT)
- WTI up 0.2% at $56.25
Precious metals
- Gold prices hold firm above $1,500, Fed minutes in focus
- Spot gold down 0.1% at $1,505.42/oz. (0116GMT)
- US gold futures flat at $1,516.20
Grains
- Corn firms after 2 days of losses, US crop tour in focus
- Most active CBOT wheat futures down 0.2% at $4.65-3/4 per bushel (0121GMT)
- Most active corn futures up 0.1% at $3.69-1/4 per bushel
- Most active soy futures up 0.2% at $8.69-3/4 per bushel
- Most active rice futures up 0.1% at $11.29 per hundredweight
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Angola, DRC, Congo & Uganda leaders to meet in Luanda
- Nigeria’s Buhari to inaugurate new cabinet
- Sudan’s new joint military & civilian sovereign council to be inaugurated
- Zambia’s Lungu in India for 3-day state visit
- South Africa state capture inquiry continues
- South Africa inflation Jul-19 [fcst. 3.9% yy, prev. 4.5%]
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Solar-irrigated farms face an unexpected threat in Zimbabwe: hungry elephants
- Sudan forms 11-member sovereign council, headed by military leader
- Southern Somali state shutters main city, airport ahead of election – senior local official
- More than a hundred migrants feared dead off Libya coast
- Zambia says no meeting planned with Vedanta over Konkola mine
- Africa Oil – Nigerian programmes expected as Angolan diffs set to rise
- Burkina Faso leader laments “dark stain” after attack kills 24 soldiers
- Egypt security forces kill 11 suspected militants in Sinai
- South Africa’s rand pauses recent slide, stocks down
- Zimbabwe opposition to review strategy in face of “political asphyxiation”
- Cameroon seperatist leaders condemned to life in prison
- Libya sends mobile petrol stations to conflict-hit west
- South Africa to consider new nuclear energy in affordable way
- Egypt’s Banque du Caire expects to seel minority stake by early 2020
- Cash-strapped South Africa state arms firm ordered to hand over taxes – union
- Ghana cashes in on slave heritage tourism
- South Africa’s Harmony Gold eyes potential in AngloGold Ashanti assets
- South Africa High Court rules against Denel – union
- Uganda shilling unchanged as commodity flows match importer appetite
- Qatar to build new port in Somalia’s Hobyo
- South Africa will look into modular nuclear technology – energy minister
- Kenya shilling holds steady against the dollar
- Zimbabwe police deploy hundreds in Gweru, MDC challenges another protest ban
- Annual earnings at South Africa’s Shoprite miss estimates
- Vedanta and Zambia President Lungu to discuss KCM in India
- South Africa’s Harmony Gold full-year earnings rise 19%
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
