By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica
Global Markets
- Asia shares push higher as more countries ease lockdowns
- Nikkei up 1.6% after Wall Street rally
- More countries ease lockdowns despite new infections
- Treasury yields edge up ahead of Fed chair speech
Oil Markets
- Oil prices drop amid supply glut, fears of 2nd coronavirus wave
- US rig count falls to record low – Baker Hughes
- Brent down 2.4% at $30.24 a barrel (0114GMT)
- WTI down 3.3% at $23.93
Precious metals
- Gold gains as new wave of infections raises further stimulus hopes
- Specs cut bullish positions in gold in week to May 5 – CFTC
- Spot gold up 0.5% at $1,708.75/oz. (0325GMT)
- US gold futures down 0.1% at $1,711.70/oz.
Grains
- Soybeans hit near 1-mth high on Chinese buying
- Soybean futures up 0.6% at $8.55-3/4 a bushel (0132GMT)
- Corn up 0.9% at $3.22 a bushel
- Wheat up 0.5% at $5.24-1/2 a bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handles @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica]
- Kenya’s Kenyatta meets factionalised ruling Jubilee party senators
- Zambia closes border with Tanzania on covid
- IMF decides $2.7 bln Egypt loan
- Nigeria’s Buhari chief of staff pick awaited
- Key African countries on lockdown or restricted; subdued economic activity
- Covid-19 updates by authorities across the continent
Key African events or data releases over the weekend & early a.m today
- Tunisia reports no new coronavirus cases for first time since early March
- President says one person infected 533 with coronavirus at Ghana fish factory
- Morocco central bank asks banks to halt dividends during coronavirus pandemic
- Libya – Massive bombardment hits Tripoli as water supplies threatened
- Three killed and 79 wounded in tribal clashes in eastern Sudan
- Twenty killed in attacks on villages in western Niger
- Algeria to lift ban on car imports
- Turkey threatens to target Haftar’s forces in Libya if attacks persist
- Three UN peacekeepers killed in roadside bomb in northern Mali – statement
- Italy aid worker kidnapped in Kenya has been freed – PM Conte
- Egypt headline inflation rises to 5.9% in April – CAPMAS
- Mayor killed in ambush in Cameroon’s restive region
- Egypt state banks collect over $7 bln from high-yield certificates
- Egypt fuel subsidy bill drops 65% in 9 months through March – official
- Tunisia cereal imports to rise by 20% in 2020/21 season – FAO
- Sierra Leone president accuses main opposition party of inciting violence
- Algeria approves 2-7% increase in retirment pensions
- South Africa suspends use of Land Bank debt as collateral after default
- Kenya & Uganda hit by power blackout, electricity back in most of Kenya
- Jet fuel tank farm at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport attacked, causing fires – Libya’s NOC
- Kenya power blackout due to glitch in transmission grid – Kenya Power
- Morocco Attijariwafa Bank Q1 profit falls 23.8%
- Turkey & Italy say shells hit near their Libya embassies
- Ghana records over 500 coronavirus cases at industrial facility
- Reported coronavirus cases in Egypt jump by nearly 500
- Ghana instructs Eni and local producer to combine oil fields
- South Africa court halts layoffs at ailing airline SAA
- South Africa rand gains on improved risk demand, markets end stronger
- South Africa defence firm Denel fails to pay pension contribution, taxes
- South Sudan Kiir, Machar differ over states, jeopardising unity govt
- South Africa central bank switches back to one daily repo auction
- South Africa Ramaphosa says Africa needs 2-yr debt standstill
- Ethiopia jails former minister for corruption
- Malawi court upholds ruling annuling Mutharika’s election win
- South Africa to parole 19,000 prisoners to curb coronavirus
- Uganda hospital, Somali town washed away by East Africa floods
- Nigeria comics fight covid-19 with gags and slapstick slaps
- Madagascar coronavirus herbal mix draws demand from across Africa despite WHO misgivings
- South Africa fx reserves rise in April as gold price rally cushions outflow shock
- Kenya shilling firms, lifted by horticulture & remittances
- South Africans mourn a metre apart as covid-19 curbs funerals
- South Africa net foreign reserves rise to $45.5 bln in April
- Tunisia allows Turkish medical aid plane to land for Libyans
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
