By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica
Global Markets
- Asia shares fall in fresh rout in crude prices
- End in sight for some lockdowns
- Oil suffers as USO ETF sells front-month futures
- Markets eye Fed, ECB meetings this week
Oil Markets
- Oil prices slide again as world runs low on storage capacity amid plunge in demand
- Brent down 1.4% at $19.72 a barrel (0110GMT)
- WTI down 6% at $12.01
Precious metals
- Gold slips as lockdown easing plans lift risk appetite
- Spot gold down 0.7% at $1,702.09/oz. (0139GMT)
- US gold futures down 0.3% at $1,719.20/oz.
Grains
- Corn flat as USDA planting report weighs on market
- Corn futures unchanged at $3.13-1/4 a bushel (0158GMT)
- Soybeans up 0.1% at $8.37-1/2 a bushel
- Wheat up 0.4% at $5.27 a bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handles @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica]
- IMF decides on Nigeria $3.4 bln loan request
- Nigeria parliament resumes
- Nigeria’s Buhari chief of staff pick awaited
- Key African countries on lockdown; subdued economic activity
- Covid-19 updates by authorities across the continent
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
- Nigeria to begin ‘phased and gradual’ easing of lockdownsin Lagos, Abuja
- Libya eastern leader Haftar says army to take formal control
- WHO chief says pandemic “far from over”, worried about children
- World Bank pandemic bonds will funnel $196 mln to 64 poor countries
- Algeria extends coronavirus restrictions to May 14
- Burundi vote campaign begins in shadow of violence & covid-19
- Virtually all Equatorial Guinea oil business on hold – hydrocarbons minister
- Rwanda in talks to delay debt payments as coronavirus hits economy – President
- Nigeria overnight rates drop after $3.9 bln liquidity squeeze
- US acknowledges killing 2 civilians in 2019 Somalia air strike
- Africa Oil – Traders seek clarity around Nigeria output
- IMF chief says expects Nigeria coronavirus aid by end of April
- Exxon Equatorial Guinea offshore workers test positive for coronavirus – sources
- Coronavirus stirs rancour in South Africa on democracy anniversary
- UN raises alarm about police brutality in lockdowns
- Uganda opposition presidential hopeful says allied lawmaker tortured, blinded
- Senegal groups get homeless children off streets amid coronavirus
- 30 workers on Equatorial Guinea offshore oil platform test positive for coronavirus
- Nigeria oil export plans delayed amid talks with majors on cuts – sources
- De Beers’ Namibia diamond venture boosts output by nearly 6% in Q1
- After beating coronavirus, a Zimbabwe survivor lives with the stigma
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
