By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji

Global Markets

• Stocks grind lower as markets await clues on trade talks
• Asian equities swing between gains and losses
• Treasury yields reverse course and fall in Asia
• Traders looking for more progress in US-China trade row

Oil Markets

• Oil slips on huge US crude build; hopes for US-China trade talks check losses
• Brent down 0.4% at $62.73 a barrel (0120GMT)
• WTI down 0.4% at $57.05

Precious metals

• Gold firms as markets await clarity on trade talks
• Spot gold up 0.2% at $1,486.53/oz (0121GMT)
• US gold futures up 0.3% at $1,488/oz

Grains

• Corn firms for first time in five sessions
• Corn futures up 0.3% at $3.83 a bushel (0013GMT)
• Soybean futures little changed at $9.34-1/2 a bushel
• Wheat futures up 0.3% at $5.16-3/4 a bushel

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

• Ethiopia dam talks in Washington DC
• Africa oil week; 4-8 Nov
• Week-long celebrations in South Africa; after Rugby World Cup win
• South Africa Investment Conference; 5-7 Nov

Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
[Posted & commented on some headlines below at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]

• Tunisian TV channel owner arrested on corruption allegations
• Kenya vows to cut emissions as dirty stoves and fuels kill 21,500 a year
• Zimbabwe public workers to press ahead with pay protest
• African Oil – Angolan offers steady, fewer December cargoes remain
• Tunisian inflation slows to 6.5 percent
• South Africa’s rand flat as Moody’s relief wanes
• Angola forms consortium with 5 oil firms for $2 bln LNG project
• Nigerian police free 259 people from Islamic institution
• Moody’s lowers South African Eskom’s rating deeper into junk
• Kenya ditches cap on banks’ commercial lending rates
• Total aiming for 2 additional LNG trains in Mozambique LNG
• Kenyan president’s bid to remove lending rate cap passes parliament
• Goldman’s sub-Saharan Africa CEO Coleman to leave firm
• South Africa’s PetroSA eyes Russia for $359 mln farmout deal
• Moody’s lowers South African Eskom’s junk rating on restructuring doubts
• Total to drill another offshore well in South Africa early 2020
• Senegal announces launch of oil and gas licensing round
• Portfolio investors help support Kenyan shilling
• South African consumer confidence hits lowest since 2017
• Kenya private sector growth slows in Oct – Markit Stanbic Bank
• South Africa’s private sector contracts again in Oct – PMI
• South African fuel prices to drop in Nov
• Rwanda appoints new foreign minister, internal security minister
• Egypt non-oil private sector shrinks for third straight month in Oct – PMI
• Trump speaks with Egypt’s Sisi, backs talks on disputed Ethiopia dam

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