• Oil prices drop on economic growth concerns
  • Bond yields drop to record lows
  • Egypt’s EGX30 adds 2.2 percent
  • Dollar firms, gold prices rise

Oil prices

Oil prices edged back early on Thursday on concerns about a slowdown in economic growth.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Dalys said on Thursday that she believes the United States economy has “strong” momentum, but uncertainty and a global growth slowdown are having an impact.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $60.19 a barrel by 0202 GMT.

US crude CLc1 was down 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $55.63 a barrel. Oil prices rose around 1.5 percent in the previous session.

“Trade tensions (are) hanging like a dark cloud threatening to rain over oil prices,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, told Reuters.

Global markets

Global bond yields hovered near record lows and Asian shares were mainly unchanged as investors were cautious about any development in the US-China trade tensions.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in early trade while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.14 percent.

Yields on 30-year US Treasuries and 10-year German bunds yield hit record lows, at - 1.905 percent and -0.716 percent respectively on Wednesday.

“Falls in global bond yields reflect growing concerns that long-term global growth are slowing down on U.S.-China tensions and subsequent global supply chain disruptions,” Tomoo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco Asset Management in Tokyo, told Reuters.

“Stock markets on the other hand are supported in the near-term by hopes of more stimulus, notably from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank,” he said.

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell 1.4 percent on Wednesday with Al Rajhi Bank losing 2 percent and the country's largest lender National Commercial Bank decreasing 2.4 percent.

In Dubai, the index added 0.2 percent with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties increasing 1 percent. Abu Dhabi's index traded flat.

Egypt's blue-chip index EGX30 surged 2.2 percent and was the best performer in the region, as Commercial International Bank jumped 4.3 percent and EFG Hermes was up 6.3 percent.

Qatar’s index was flat, Bahrain’s index fell 0.2 percent while Oman’s index gained 0.5 percent and Kuwait’s premier market index edged up 0.2 percent.

Currencies

The dollar was little changed early on Thursday.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.25 percent to 98.248 in the previous session.

Precious metals

Gold prices rose on Thursday as investors dumped risky assets and flew to safe havens.

Spot gold rose 0.2 percent to $1,542.35 per ounce, as of 0142 GMT.

US gold futures were up 0.1 percent at $1,550.50 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Seban Scaria)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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