By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Asian shares ease from highs, reaction to impeachment muted
- Sentiment positive but markets lack momentum
- Pound hurt by renewed worries of a hard Brexit
Oil Markets
- Oil prices surf near 3-mth highs after US crude inventories fall
- US crude inventories fell 1.1 mln bbls last week – EIA
- Gasoline, distillates stockpiles rose – EIA
- Brent down 1 cent at $66.16 a barrel (0224GMT)
- WTI down 3 cents at $60.90
Precious metals (18 Dec)
- Gold dips as dollar rises; palladium falls back from near $2,000
- Spot gold dipped 0.1% to $1,474.91/oz. (1907GMT)
- US gold futures settles down 0.1% at $1,478.70/oz.
Grains
- Soybeans edge lower, US-China trade deal optimism caps losses
- Soybean futures down 0.2% at $9.26-3/4 a bushel (0233GMT)
- Corn futures up 0.2% at $3.87-3/4 a bushel
- Wheat futures little changed at $5.48 a bushel
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- 2020 appropriations act press briefing by Nigeria’s finmin
- ECOWAS ministers meet in Abuja (17-19 Dec); heads of state meet on 21 Dec
- France’s Macron heads to Ivory Coast, Niger; 20-22 Dec
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
- Chad – New York rents in the Sahara? Living in Africa’s most expensive city
- IMF board approves financing package to pave way for Somalia debt relief
- Egypt’s sovereign fund to revamp historic area under citadel
- US citizenship path for thousands of Liberians tucked in spending bill
- Fire interrupts coal supply to South Africa’s 2nd biggest power plant
- Egypt’s wheat inspectors to resume cargo checks at origin ports
- Canada’s SNC-Lavalin unit pleads guilty to fraud charge in Libya case
- South Africa’ rand leaps to 4-mth best as risks ease, Fitch holds fire
- Africa Oil – Angolan allocations yet to emerge, Nigerian programmes awaited
- Algeria shuts Skida LNG unit for 2 months, exports affected
- Militants kill 14 Chad civilians in overnight raid
- South Africa says Fitch reprieve will focus efforts on bringing down debt
- Somalia hit by worst desert locust invasion in 25 years
- MTN South Africa’s mobile money service to go live in Jan 2020
- Erdogan says Turkey to boost cooperation with Libya – NTV
- Namibia’s power supply squeezed as drought hits hydropower plant
- Kenyan shilling strengthens against the dollar
- Hitachi, MHI reach settlement over South African project
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
