By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Global Markets
- Stocks extend New Year cheer, Mideast air strikes drive oil higher
- Oil surges after reports Iran officials killed in US air strike
- MSCI Asia ex-Japan +0.4%
- Brent up 1.9% at $67.48
- Spot gold up 0.5% at $1,536.54/oz.
- China easing, positive China, Korea data seen supporting
Oil Markets
- Oil prices jump $1 after US air strike kills Iran, Iraq military personnel
- Brent up 1.9% at $67.48 a barrel (0202GMT)
- WTI up 1.7% at $62.21
Grains
- Soybeans set for 5th week of gains on Chinese demand hopes
- Wheat futures up 0.2% at $5.61-1/4 a bushel (0152GMT)
- Corn futures up 0.1% at $3.92 a bushel
- Soy futures up 0.1% at $9.57 a bushel
- Rice futures down 0.4% at $13.11 per hundredweight
Key African events or data releases today
[Posts & comments at my Twitter handle @DrRafiqRaji]
- Uganda parliament to vet new Museveni ministers
- South Africa ABSA manufacturing PMI Dec-19 [prev. 47.7]
Key African events or data releases yesterday & early a.m today
- Billionaire dos Santos’ suitability as shareholder in question after asset freeze – Bank of Portugal
- Military plane crash in Sudan’s West Darfur leaves 18 dead
- South African photographer kidnapped in Syria back home – source
- Algeria appoints new govt amid worst political crisis in decades
- Turkish parliament passes Libya deployment bill, but troops unlikely for now
- Trump tells Erdogan foreign interference complicating Libya – White House
- Prominent South Sudan economist, 30 others pardoned by President Kiir
- Ethiopia relaxes curbs on political gatherings with new anti-terror law
- Algeria releases protest detainees
- Egypt holds domestic fuel prices steady
- South Africa’s rand weaker as dollar recovers; stocks gain
- Africa Oil – Asking prices reduced amid slow holiday sales
- Turkey says Trump, Erdogan discussed Libya on phone call
- Egypt condemns Turkey decision to allow troop deployment to Libya
- Tunisian president says parliament to vote on government
- South Africa’s MTN exits towers businesses in Ghana and Uganda
- Armed assailants kill 3 in Kenya’s Lamu county
- Kenyan shilling seen rising, Zambia’s kwacha under pressure
- Turkey to back Libya deployment bill but troops unlikely for now
- Nigerian teen in pink aims to ‘take the golf world by storm’
- Zimbabwe’s parched Bulawayo rations to save dwindling water
N.B. Full stories of above headlines are available on Reuters
