Following the formation of the Government of National Unit (GNU) in June of this year, South Africa’s markets and economy appear to be enjoying a new era of positivity highlighted by an event earlier this week where business and government joined hands to launch ‘phase 2’ of a compact they launched last year. Business leaders…
This has been a relatively action-packed week on the geopolitical front, with Israel stepping up its airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin rattling his nuclear sabre and China test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. As these developments show, we are living in an era of heightened geopolitical tension,…
After months of speculation about the size and timing of the first interest rate cut in the US, the Federal Reserve slashed the rate by 50bps this week. Rather than regarding it as a sign of the Fed panicking about the state of the economy, most observers see it as an attempt to ensure a…
With wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, new powers such as China and India asserting themselves, and the economic rise of the global south, the geopolitical environment is in flux. Political developments in the US, as the world’s hegemon, will have an outsized effect on global politics and, consequently, the world economy. Decisions…
After months of debate and anticipation about when the Fed will cut interest rates, investors have locked in September 18 as the date we’ll see interest rates drop for the first time since 2020. The discussion is no longer if or when the Fed will slash rates, but by how much. A 25bps cut would…
As we have written in previous News Flashes, August has, on average, been the worst month for the stock market since 1986. With the Flash Crash that started the month, investors had every reason to fear that August 2024 would be an ‘average’ month by that measure. Yet, as markets close for the month, most…
The “hype cycle” is a term popularised by Gartner – a research firm listed on the S&P 500 – and one that is common knowledge in Silicon Valley. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has helped to power the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices to…
Global equities markets continued their dramatic recovery this week following the Flash Crash that troughed on Monday, August 5th. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices have now notched up sufficient gains to erase the losses recorded during the beginning of August. It is interesting that the confluence of negative factors that caused the sharp…
The equities sell-off that was sparked on Thursday last week, ignited on Monday with Asian markets plummeting at the start of trade. Japan’s Nikkei Index dropped by more than 12% on the day in a plunge reminiscent of Black Monday in 1987. Key indices across Europe and Asia followed the Nikkei down as did the…
