By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica
Global Markets
- Asia shares sluggish after Wall Street’s tech-inspired rally
- Dollar weaknes slightly on disappointing data
- Nikkei slips 0.5%, Chinese blue chips down 0.25%
- Safe haven gold rises on Buffet move
- Oil mostly holds gains after output cut
- Brent down 0.1% at $45.31, Gold up 0.4% at $1,995/oz.
Oil Markets
- Oil lower as suppliers seek to hold promises on output cuts
- Brent down 0.5% at $45.15 a barrel (0322GMT)
- WTI down 0.5% at $42.66
Precious metals
- Gold prices extend gains on dollar weakness, $2,000-mark eyed
- Spot gold up 0.2% at $1,990.13/oz. (0351GMT)
- US gold futures up 0.1% at $1,999.70/oz.
Grains
- Corn eases from 5-wk top on expectations of higher US production
- Corn futures down 0.3% at $3.43-1/2 a bushel (0258GMT)
- Wheat down 0.4% at $5.24-1/4 a bushel
- Soybeans down 0.2% at $9.13-1/4 a bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handles @DrRafiqRaji, @macroafrica]
- Ghana presidential frontrunners Akufo-Addo & Mahama tour regions
- Ghana’s Bawumia speaks on infrastructure
- Kenya Senate adhoc committee meets on revenue allocation impasse; after passage failure for umpteenth time
- Kenya’s Kenyatta cabinet reshuffle back in focus; after cabinet et al. sent on compulsory leave
- Key African countries on lockdown or restricted; subdued economic activity
- Covid-19 updates by authorities across the continent
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
- Egypt shrinks subsidized bread loaf by 20 gms, revises cost of flour
- Nigeria eyes record 12.65 trillion naira spending plan for 2021 – document
- MTN Ivory Coast CEO sees 2020 revenue rising up to 10%
- Nigeria to reopen airports for international flights from Aug. 29
- OPEC+ panel focuses on compliance with oil cuts, calls for ‘vigilance’
- G7 to consider extending debt freeze for low-income countries – US Treasury
- Nigeria’s central bank to set up $39 bln infrastructure firm with sovereign fund
- Algeria’s Sonatrach, Wintershall Dea sign MoU to boost partnership
- Congo Ebola responders end strike over unpaid salaries
- Sudan security forces fire tear gas at protesters on anniversay of power-sharing deal
- Nigeria’s $1.5 bln World Bank loan delayed over reforms – sources
- Nigeria inflation rises for 11th month in July as import disruption weigh
- Turkey, Qatar & Germany ministers visit Libya amid ceasefire efforts
- Coronavirus banishes female inmates to far-flung jails in Malawi
- Nigeria annual inflation at 12.82% in July – stats office
- South Africa’s TFG concludes agreement to buy Jet stores, some approvals pending
- Death toll from attack on Somalia Mogadishu hotel rises to 16
- Putin, Erdogan discuss conflicts in Libya, Syria in phone call
- Ivory Coast’s main cocoa harvest to begin early, boosted by good weather
- South Africa’s embattled state arms firm appoints interim CEO
- South Africa’s Tiger Brands to sell processed meats businbess for $24.7 mln
- Egypt unemployment rate rose to 9.6% in Q2 due to coronavirus – CAPMAS
- Hit by worsening drought, Zimbabwe taps funding for water-wise farming
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
