• Oil prices drop on economic growth concerns
  • Asian shares close at six-week high
  • Egypt’s EGX30 gains 0.6 percent
  • Dollar, gold prices drop

Oil prices

Oil prices edged lower on Friday as concerns over a slower global economic growth outweighed hints of progress in the United State and China trade dispute.

China will exempt some U.S. agricultural products from additional tariffs, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures fell 16 cents to settle at $60.22 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures delivery fell 24 cents to end at $54.85 a barrel.

Brent fell 2.1 percent for the week, its first decrease in five weeks. WTI lost about 3% loss for the week, its first decrease in three weeks.

Saturday’s attacks on key Saudi Arabia processing plants will test the world’s ability to handle a supply crisis as it faces the temporary loss of more than 5% of global supply from the world’s biggest crude exporter.

“Oil prices will jump on this attack, and if the disruption to Saudi production is prolonged, an SPR release ... seems likely and sensible,” Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York, told Reuters.

Global markets

World shares climbed to a six-week high as investors reacted positively to signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks.

Asian shares ended their week at a six-week high. Japan’s Nikkei did even better and scored a 4-month peak, while Wall Street’s S&P 500 had closed just short of its all-time closing high.

“I think a rally in stock prices will run out of steam soon. It’s typical buy-on-rumour-sell-on-fact trade on central bank stimulus and will be over by the Fed and the BOJ’s meetings,” Tatsushi Maeno, senior strategist at Okasan Asset Management told Reuters.

The Fed will announce its policy on Wednesday, followed by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Thursday.

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s index edged down 0.3 percent. Riyad Bank shed 1.8 percent and the kingdom's largest lender, National Commercial Bank, lost 1.2 percent.

The Dubai index edged up 0.1 percent, led by gains in financial stocks, with Dubai Islamic Bank adding 0.9 percent.

In Abu Dhabi, the index was down 0.2 percent as market heavyweight Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank dropped 2.4 percent.

Qatar's index also edged lower, slipping 0.1 percent to brake a four-session winning streak. Lender Masraf Al Rayan was down 1.1 percent.

Egypt's blue-chip index EGX30 closed 0.6 percent up, extending gains for a third day after a fall in consumer price inflation to 7.5 percent in August, its lowest in years.

Kuwait’s premier market index edged 0.2 percent lower, Bahrain’s index added 0.4 percent and Oman’s index edged up 0.1 percent.

Currencies

The dollar slipped on Friday on the back of a strong euro as the euro shuffled up to a two-week high.

Precious metals

Gold prices eased on Friday.

Spot gold fell 0.5 percent to $1,491.41 per ounce by 1:35 p.m. EDT (1735 GMT).

U.S. gold futures settled down nearly $8, or 0.5 percent, to $1,499.50 per ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)


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