By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Asian stocks cheered by fresh trade talk momentum
- Share edge higher in risk-on mood
- Yen & Swiss franc on back foot in Asia
- Oil prices reverse losses on trade outlook
Oil Markets
- Oil prices steady amid hopes for US-China trade deal
- Brent down 1 cent at $63.64 a barrel (0121GMT)
- WTI down 3 cents at $57.98
Precious metals
- Gold dips as China-US trade optimism dents safe-haven demand
- Spot gold down 0.1% at $1,453.24/oz. (0108GMT)
- US gold futures down 0.2% at $1,453.50/oz.
Grains
- Wheat eases from 1-mth top, soybeans tick up after 4 sessions of losses
- Wheat futures down 0.4% at $5.31 per bushel (0150GMT)
- Corn futures down 0.3% at $3.69-1/4 per bushel
- Soy futures up 0.2% at $8.94-1/2 per bushel
- Rice futures nearly unchanged at $12.20 per hundredweight
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Central Bank of Nigeria interest rate decision [fcst. 13.5%, prev. 13.5%]
- Central Bank of Kenya’s Njoroge post-MPC press briefing
- Guinea-Bissau vote-counting ongoing
- Global gender summit in Kigali; 25-27 Nov
- Final campaigns for 27 Nov. Namibia elections
- 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]
- US officials meet with Libya’s Haftar amid push to end Tripoli offensive
- Moroccan court jails rapper for insulting police
- Vedanta warns it may have to process ore outside South Africa
- 2 killed in Congo after protesters torch UN buildings over massacre
- Africa Oil – Angolan spot cargoes offered, Nigerian strong
- Malawi clinches $43 mln from IMF credit programme
- Cameroon’s main opposition party to boycott February elections
- South Africa’s big supermarkets told to drop exclusivity clauses in mall leases
- US recalls ambassador from South Sudan after unity govt failure
- South Africa’s rand slips back into range as trade jitters resurface
- Congo rape victims take to catwalk to show female strength
- South Africa’s Checkers supermarket promises to deliver groceries in an hour
- Africa urged to diversify export markets amid US-China trade war
- South Africa at risk unless it rapidly reforms economy – IMF
- Ivory Coast issues 7-yr 150 bln CFA franc ($255 mln) bond
- Kenya central bank cuts loan rate to 8.5% for first time in over a year
- South Africa’s RBPlat concludes 5-yr wage deal with unions
- Egypt’s central bank governor appointed for second term – state media
- Ivory Coast 2019/20 cocoa port arrivals seen at 607k T by Nov. 24 – exporters
- Ethiopia vows to remove barriers to investment in mining
- Protesters torch DR Congo mayor’s office after massacre
- Namibian court throws out case against voting machines
- South Africa expected to sow fewer maizae hectares than in previous season – survey
- Nigeria’s SecureID taps into Africa’s move from cash to plastic
- Kenya shilling weakens against the dollar amid end-month demand
- Uganda shilling weakens amid a rise in demand by banks and importers
- Waste storage at Africa’s only nuclear plant brimming
- Potash a key focus for Ethiopia’s mining push – draft document
- South Africa blocks arms sales to Saudi & UAE in inspection row
- South Africa’s Pepkor to close loss-making Zimbabwe business
- South Africa’s Sasol expects H1 profit to slump by at least 20%
- South Africa’s Pepkor FY profit rises 14.5%
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters