By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Bond yields, stock prices supported ahead of central bank meetings
- Value-oriented shares in US suddenly in favour
- Investors unwind their positions ahead of central bank meets
- Bond yields rise, US 10-yr yield up 10bps on Tue
Oil Markets
- Oil prices after data shows big drop in US inventories
- Brent up 0.7% at $62.81 a barrel (0053GMT)
- WTI up 0.8% at $57.87 a barrel
Precious metals
- Gold prices inch up amid cautious; investors eye ECB meet
- Spot gold up 0.4% at $1,491.60/oz. (0120GMT)
- US gold futures flat at $1,499.3/oz.
Grains
- Corn prices hit 8-day high on lower US crop condition
- Wheat futures down 0.4% at $4.80-1/4 per bushel (0055GMT)
- Corn futures up 0.3% at $3.62-1/2 per bushel
- Soy futures unchanged at $8.72 per bushel
- Rice futures unchanged at $12.02 per hundredweight
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Nigeria presidential election petitions tribunal to rule on Abubakar vs Buhari
- Gambia’s Barrow in Qatar
- 5th Investing in Africa forum in Brazzaville; Rwanda’s Kagame et al. attending
- 1st batch of Nigerian returnees from South Africa expected
- South Africa SACCI business confidence Aug-19 [prev. 92.0]
- South Africa state capture inquiry continues
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Mugabe’s body leaves Singapore for burial in Zimbabwe
- Cameroon leader says govt will organise talks to solve separatist crisis
- Chad extends state of emergency in 3 provinces by 4 mths
- South Africa’s Naspers takes Tencent stake out of Africa with Prosus listing
- Ivory Coast, Ghana looking to regulate cocoa industry’s sustainability schemes
- Hundreds of Nigerians to take free evacuation from South Africa
- South Africa’s rand firms on improved risk appetite, stocks down
- Kenya Airways cancels flights due to pilot shortage
- Africa Oil – Angolan, Congolese crude still awaits buyers
- Banned Nigerian Shi’ite group says police killed 12 in religious marches
- All remains from Ethiopian Airlines crash site now identified – police
- Libya’s displaced struggle for shelter as fighting drags on
- Sudan’s prime minister to join peace talks in Juba with rebels
- African refugees held in Libya to be evacuated to Rwanda – UN
- Algeria PM to resign, paving way for vote after protracted protests
- South Africa’s investment grade rating depends on pace of reform – Moody’s
- 4 cholera cases confirmed in Sudan, 3 die of acute watery diarrhoea
- Ivory Coast town sinking underwater as coastal erosion advances
- “Will we eat democracy?” – Tunisians frustrated as elections approach
- Egypt’s August inflation rate falls to 7.5%, lowest in years
- South Africa’s manufacturing down 1.1% y/y in July
- MTN Group says Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire CEOs stepping down
- Sudan’s major floods present first challenge for its new leader
- Lack of clarity on South Africa’s Eskom illustrates policy uncertainty – Moody’s
- South Africa’s Mossel Bay GTL plant could be out of gas by 2020
- South Africa’s investment grade rating depends on pace of reforms – Moody’s
- South African platinum miners’ wage talks go to internal abitrators
- Kenya shilling strengthens against the dollar
- Moody’s cuts South Africa’s 2019 GDP growth forecast to 0.7%
- South Africa’s AMCU declares a dispute in wage talks with platinum firms
- Action! Nigeria’s film industruy draws global entertainment brands
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters