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