With the end of the year fast approaching, a lot has been happening in politics. Angela Merkel announced that she would not be running for re-election of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Party (CDU); US Midterms and the implications of which are on our doorstep; the end to Brexit seems to be approaching; Global stocks officially had their worst month since 2012, and Tom Moyane has been fired, with Gigaba close behind.
Global News
- Over the last couple of days, global stocks have seen a dramatic upturn after October saw the worst performance in equities stocks since 2012.
- Earlier this week Tech stocks went into free fall. This happened after the Trump administration announced that there could be a complete tariff introduction on all remaining Chinese imports by December. This sent the darlings of the market plummeting – Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon and Facebook included.
- News came in early this morning that Trump has asked Cabinet to draw up a possible trade deal with China. This came after a telephone conversation that Trump had with the President of China, Xi Jinping.
- The implications of the upcoming Midterm elections in the US could be heavily influential on Trump’s power as President, international financial markets, and American policy regarding immigration and the Trade War. Follow the link for further analysis.
- This week Angela Merkel announced that she would step down as leader of the CDU in December 2018. She wants to stay on as Chancellor until 2021 but probably won’t be allowed too.
- The British pound jumped in strength on Thursday after news that Theresa May had struck a deal with Brussels that would give UK financial services companies access to European markets after Brexit.
- Many former Goldman Sachs bankers have been charged, arrested or brought before court in connection with widespread bribery and money laundering relating to Malaysia’s 1MDB wealth fund.
- Brazil’s voters have decided to pivot sharply to the right, voting in President Bolsonaro. He is expected to be hard on corruption and wants to privatize state companies, liberalise gun ownership, and mine the rainforest. Here is a link to an article on what else you can expect under Bolsonaro’s leadership.
- Despite Trump’s Trade War and his attempts to return industry to America, every metal producer in America has lost market value this year. Bloomberg reported that notwithstanding the trade tariffs against steel and aluminium imports to the US, local producers have failed to capitalise in the way that Trump had envisioned. The S&P Metals and Mining Index showed that many large companies, including the likes of Caterpillar, had experienced the largest drop in value since the 2008 financial crisis.
Local News
- Tom Moyane was finally fired as SARS Commissioner last night by Cyril Ramaphosa. This came after Judge Robert Nugent called for Moyane’s dismissal.
- South Africa recorded a surprise trade deficit of R2.95billion in September. This came after a surprise surplus in August and was against analysts’ expectations of a surplus in September.
- In the following article leading economist Dr Azar Jammine analyses Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent investment summit.
- The South African Reserve Bank has warned of higher interest rates in the next two years to help contain potentially accelerating inflation.
- South African motorists may feel the relief of petrol going down on the 7 November, by 20c!
Source: Dynasty, Stanlib, Prescient, Daily Maverick, Moneyweb, Reuters, RMB, Aljazeera, and Bloomberg Markets, etc
