By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica
Global Markets
- Stocks try to shake off second wave virus fears
- S&P 500 futures erase early gains but second wave fears persist
- Gold near 7-1/2-year peak touched last month
- Hong Kong in focus after China reveals details of security law
Oil Markets
- Oil edges up on tighter supply, but demand concerns check gains
- Brent up 9 cents at $42.28 a barrel (0009GMT)
- WTI up 1 cent at $39.76
Precious metals
- Gold hits 1-mth peak as rising virus fears boost demand
- Spot gold up 0.7% at $1,754.74/oz. (0225GMT)
- US gold futures up 1.1% at $1,771.40/oz.
- SPDR Gold Trust holdings rose 2% on Friday
- Specs raise gold bullish positions in week to June 16 – CFTC
- Silver hits more than 1-wk high
Grains
- Soybeans falls from near 3-mth high, hopes of Chinese demand cap losses
- Soybean futures down 0.1% at $8.75-1/2 a bushel (0110GMT)
- Corn down 0.3% at $3.31-1/2 a bushel
- Wheat down 0.2% at $4.80-1/4 a bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handles @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica]
- Kenya’s Kenyatta meets ruling Jubilee MPs; cabinet reshuffle imminent
- Ghana reopens senior high schools
- Ghana opposition NDC press briefing
- South Africa SACCI business confidence May-20 [prev. 77.8]
- 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
- Morocco to resume domestic flights starting June 25
- Egypt high school pupils, masked and gloved, head into exams
- Former South Africa president De Klerk withdraws from US rights talk
- UK police arrested Libya man after knife attack in Reading – security source
- US farming body and Zambia firm partner aim to boost crop yields
- Ivory Coast ex-president Bedie says he will run in 2020 election
- Blasts kill 7 people in southern and central Somalia
- Egypt has a legitimate right to intervene in Libya, Sisi says
- Egypt is committed to a diplomatic solution to Ethiopia’s dam crisis – Sisi
- West Africa bloc urges Mali to re-run disputed elections amid mass protests
- Zimbabwe health minister granted bail over $60 mln graft claims
- Congo court sentences president’s chief of staff to 20 years in prison
- Egypt’s Sisi orders army to be ready for missions abroad amid tensions over Libya
- UN calls for calm, dialogue amid huge Mali protests
- IMF approves $148 mln emergency credit for Guinea
- New Development Bank provides South Africa with $1 bln covid-19 loan
- Egypt calls for UN intervention in talks on Ethiopia’s GERD
- Rwanda GDP growth slows to 3.6% in Q1 2020 from 6.1% in the same period last year
- Swiss prosecutors launch Glencore criminal probe over Congo
- Thousand of protesters demand Mali president step down
- Morocco records biggest single-day rise in covid cases
- Nigeria levies $598 mln from banks via cash ratio debit ahead of FX auction
- Ivory Coast cocoa traders seek fairer share of fairtrade, letter shows
- Africa Oil – Angola July supply clearing, Vitol wins tender
- Glencore’s South Africa venture with Merafe starts job cuts process
- Bangladesh arrests dozens after migrant workers murdered in Libya
- Kenya shilling firm, supported by horticulture export inflows
- South Africa unions reject SAA rescue plan over job cuts
- Russia sovereign fund chief says no point extending OPEC+ cuts – RBC
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters