Oil futures prices closed marginally down on Friday as investors balanced softer U.S. consumer sentiment against growing expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate reduction in September. Brent crude futures was down by 37 cents closing at $85.03 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined by 41 cents, finishing the session at $82.21 per barrel. For the week, Brent futures fell more than 1.7% after four weeks of gains. WTI futures posted 1.1% weekly decline.

U.S. equity funds experienced their first weekly outflow in three weeks as investors engaged in profit-taking ahead of the upcoming earnings season. They sold a net total of $3.57 billion in U.S. equity funds during the week, partially reversing the net purchases of $8.56 billion made the previous week. This week(ENDING 12 JULY), U.S. stocks reached new highs driven by a softer jobs report last Friday and weaker consumer price inflation data on Thursday, which heightened expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit record levels on Thursday but faced selling pressure in certain heavyweight sectors later on. Investors assessed second-quarter earnings from major U.S. banks on Friday, following disappointing results from key companies like PepsiCo Inc (PEP.O) and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), which left markets unimpressed on Thursday.

Investors withdrew $3.24 billion from large-cap funds, ending a two-week buying streak, and also exited multi-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap funds, amounting to $873 million, $664 million, and $87 million, respectively. Meanwhile, U.S. bond funds continued to attract capital, enjoying a sixth consecutive week of inflows totaling $3.77 billion.

India’s retail inflation rate rose for the first time in five months in June due to a sharp rise in food prices.Annual retail inflation  was 5.08% in June, up from 4.75% in May, below analysts forecast of 4.80%. Prices of food, which account for nearly half of the retail inflation, rose 9.36% from last year in June compared to an 8.69% rise in May. Food prices have been accelerating at more than 8% year-on-year since November 2023. Vegetable prices rose 29.32% in June against 27.33% in the previous month, as extreme heat and heavy floods in India’s northern states disrupted agricultural production. However, For June, rural inflation was 5.66% compared to 4.39% in recorded in urban areas.

Egypt’s current account deficit soared to $17.1 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2023/24, significantly higher than the $5.3 billion recorded a year earlier. This increase was driven by a sharp decline in oil exports, which plummeted by $7.2 billion to $4.6 billion. Imports of oil products also surged by $1.5 billion, while natural gas imports increased by $268.2 million during the July-March period. These developments come amidst power shortages and increased demand for cooling due to a heatwave in the North African country.

Despite these challenges, Egypt saw a notable expansion in net foreign direct investment inflows, which tripled to $23.7 billion compared to $7.9 billion in the same period the previous year.

The official foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria saw a significant 40% increase in turnover this week, rising by $292.75 million. Total turnover climbed from $740.92 million during the week of July 1 to 5, 2024, to $1.03 billion for the week of July 8 to 12, 2024. The last time weekly FX turnover surpassed the $1 billion mark was in early June, totaling $1.05 billion.  The surge in FX turnover was buoyed by  a two-day sale of a dollar worth $122.67 million to 46 authorized dealers by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).