Economy
Gold traded steady on Tuesday following its biggest one-day rise in two weeks, supported by hopes of a US solution to its fiscal problems and Middle East tension, but weighed down by a firmer dollar as a result of France's rating downgrade.
Brent crude held steady above US$111 a barrel on Tuesday, less than a dollar off a one-month top hit in the previous session, on hopes a US budget crisis will be averted and on supply worries triggered by tension in the Middle East.
Egypt aims to secure agreement on a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund in a few days to help shore up its battered finances, the prime minister told Reuters on Monday. The IMF team in Cairo said earlier on Monday it was extending its stay for a few days.
Companies
Saudi Arabia’s largest listed real estate developer, Dar Al Arkan, plans to buy assets in Asia as part of its strategy to diversify revenue streams, its chairman Youssef al-Shelash said on Monday.
Mark Mobius, one of the world's best-known emerging market investors, will increase his exposure to Saudi Arabia once the largest Gulf Arab state opens its markets to foreigners.
Israel/Gaza
Egypt's prime minister said on Monday that an agreement brokered by Cairo to stop the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza could be close.
"Negotiations are going on as we speak and I hope we will reach something soon that will stop this violence and counter violence," Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said in an interview in Cairo for the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.
European Union governments called on Israel and Hamas on Monday to agree a "rapid" ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and said they supported Egyptian efforts to mediate.
Politics
Federal and Kurdistan region leaders are sending thousands of troops to their contested border, days after a shootout between rival security forces killed one and injured at least eight others.