PHOTO
26 March 2017
Oil prices rose modestly on Friday in a spate of late-day activity, but fell on the week as concerns persisted over an excess of crude.Brent crude settled up 24 cents, or 0.47 percent, at $50.80 a barrel. U.S. crude settled up 27 cents, or 0.57 percent, at $47.97.
U.S. shares pared losses to end slightly lower on Friday after Republicans pulled their bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system due to a shortage of votes, dealing a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump, while European shares fell ahead of the decision.MSCI's all-country world equity index was last up 0.24 point, or 0.05 percent, at 447.72.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.16 percent at 1,484.54.
Most stock markets in the Gulf made small gains on Thursday, recovering some of the week's losses, but trading volumes remained very low. Egypt rebounded as foreign funds bought shares there.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, hit a seven-week low of 99.527 before the healthcare decision but pared losses after the announcement and was last marginally higher at 99.765.
Safe-haven assets such as gold, U.S. Treasuries and the yen lost some shine after the decision. Spot gold prices pared gains to last trade little changed at $1,245.37 an ounce after hitting a more than three-week high on Thursday of $1,253.12.
In the latest news, Morocco's Prime Minster Saad Eddine El Othmani said on Saturday he had agreed to form a coalition government with five other parties, breaking nearly six months of post-election deadlock.
Tunisia is likely to sell stakes in three state-owned banks this year and cut up to 10,000 public sector jobs as part of reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has postponed the payment of the second tranche of a loan, the finance minister said.
For access to market moving insight, subscribe to the Trading Middle East newsletter by clicking here.
Oil prices rose modestly on Friday in a spate of late-day activity, but fell on the week as concerns persisted over an excess of crude.Brent crude settled up 24 cents, or 0.47 percent, at $50.80 a barrel. U.S. crude settled up 27 cents, or 0.57 percent, at $47.97.
U.S. shares pared losses to end slightly lower on Friday after Republicans pulled their bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system due to a shortage of votes, dealing a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump, while European shares fell ahead of the decision.MSCI's all-country world equity index was last up 0.24 point, or 0.05 percent, at 447.72.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.16 percent at 1,484.54.
Most stock markets in the Gulf made small gains on Thursday, recovering some of the week's losses, but trading volumes remained very low. Egypt rebounded as foreign funds bought shares there.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, hit a seven-week low of 99.527 before the healthcare decision but pared losses after the announcement and was last marginally higher at 99.765.
Safe-haven assets such as gold, U.S. Treasuries and the yen lost some shine after the decision. Spot gold prices pared gains to last trade little changed at $1,245.37 an ounce after hitting a more than three-week high on Thursday of $1,253.12.
In the latest news, Morocco's Prime Minster Saad Eddine El Othmani said on Saturday he had agreed to form a coalition government with five other parties, breaking nearly six months of post-election deadlock.
Tunisia is likely to sell stakes in three state-owned banks this year and cut up to 10,000 public sector jobs as part of reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has postponed the payment of the second tranche of a loan, the finance minister said.
For access to market moving insight, subscribe to the Trading Middle East newsletter by clicking here.
