By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji

Global Markets

• Stocks recover but anxiety over trade talks lingers
• S&P 500 futures almost flat after 1.3% fall earlier
• NYT says Trump to concede on Huawei
• China’s Liu to cut short his visit to Washington – SCMP
• Sterling dogged by Brexit worries, Turkish lira slumps

Oil Markets

• Oil prices fall as hopes for US-China trade progress wilt
• Brent, WTI futures down 0.2%
• High-level talks begin on Thur, no progress seen in early contact
• US weekly crude stocks rise by 2.9 mln bbls last week – EIA
• Brent down 0.2% at $58.21 a barrel (0354GMT)
• WTI down 0.2% at $52.48

Precious metals

• Gold at 1-wk high as trade talk hopes fade
• Spot gold rose 0.4% at $1,511.24/oz. (0049GMT)
• US gold futures up 0.3% at $1,516.50

Grains

• Soybeans ease from 3-mth top, Chinese buying limits losses
• Wheat futures up 0.1% at $5.00-3/4 per bushel (0052GMT)
• Corn futures down 0.3% at $3.93-1/4 per bushel
• Soy futures down 0.2% at $9.21-1/2 per bushel
• Rice futures nearly unchanged at $12.0 per hundredweight

Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]

• South Africa manufacturing production Aug-19 [fcst. -0.8% yy, prev. -1.1%]
• South Africa mining production Aug-19 [fcst. 1.9% yy, prev. 2.4%]
• South Africa’s Ramaphosa to answer questions in NCOP
• 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]

• Spies hacked Moroccan activists amid crackdown on protests – researchers
• World Bank sees Egypt economy growing 5.8% in 2019/20
• Libya’s Ras Lanuf polyethylene plant resumes production
• Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda to lead fractured new parliament
• Libya state oil firm pays salaries for eastern unit with parallel board
• Egypt, Iraq discuss Syria after Turkish offensive – Egypt state TV
• Ennahda came first in Tunisia parliamentary election
• Ethiopia’s peacemaking prime minister emerges as a Nobel favourite
• Tunisia presidential candidate freed days before election
• Morocco reshuffles cabinet, keeps foreign & finance ministers
• Africa Oil – Bonny Light force majeure lifted, Angolan oil discounted
• Somalia auditor general slams govt finances
• Senegal pushes oil licensing round back
• South African rand firms on improved sentiment, stocks down
• Egypt calls emergency Arab meeting over Turkish offensive into Syria – ministry
• IMF sees higher Nigeria inflation in 2020 on minimum wage, tax rises
• Egypt denounces Ethiopia for moving ahead with Nile dam amid water shortage fears
• Inflation-hit Zimbabwe public workers seek US dollar-indexed pay
• South Sudan to launch auction of licences for 8 oil fields
• Egypt dollar bonds fall in anticipation of new supply
• Nigeria lands higher oil output target in OPEC+ cut deal
• World Bank cuts Sub-Saharan Africa’s 2019, 2020 growth forecast
• Shell lifts force majeure on Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude
• Senegal delays oil licensing round by a month
• Zimbabwe quadruples electricity prices, pummelling impoverished consumers
• Angola seeks to reduce gas flaring to capture revenue
• South Africa’s Sept business confidence recovers from 34-yr low – SACCI
• South Sudan sees oil production reaching 200k barrels per day by 2021
• Kenya shilling strengthens against the dollar
• Zambia’s KCM smelter shut down earlier than planned after leak – liquidator
• South Africa’s rand pauses slide as risk clouds gather
• Zimnbabwe hikes average electricity tariff by 320% – energy regulator

N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters