Global Markets

The US central bank maintained its interest rates and QE pace yesterday, but upgraded its economic forecasts and view on rates path, sending the US Dollar higher

Companies looking to go public have more than one way to achieve their goal, including through Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), a method that has come to prominence in recent years.

Central Banks Introduce Hawkishness On 21 April, the Bank of Canada was the first industrial country's central bank to signal a reduction in stimulus and a normalisation of monetary policy. Since then, there has been a hint of hawkish sentiment from the Bank of England by chief economist Andy Haldane who views inflation as an increasing threat. We have also seen a positive statement from the Reserve Bank of New…

The BoC left interest rates unchanged at 0.25% and QE at C$3 billion/week, with more action potentially expected at the next meeting

It has been a few months since we saw the first reports of economic recovery in China. If we look at the GDP stats, China's significant down fall was first quarter of 2020, at the outbreak of Covid, which was compensated in the next two quarters. Another indicator of recovery has been the decline in the jobless rate. During the worst of covid lockdown in the spring of 2020, between…

The world returns to normalcy after the pandemic that broke out last year and we will explore whether it was an unpredictable event, a Black Swan for markets.

Australian Unemployment and the RBA's Response During the Covid Pandemic The Reserve Bank of Australia or RBA is Australia's central bank. It is the custodian of the country's monetary policy and aims to contribute to: The stability of the currency of Australia; The maintenance of full employment in Australia; and The economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia. As the central bank decides on and institutes its various…

Chip Shortage is becoming an issue for various industries worldwide - it has major real-world consequences and is expected to last for at least two more years. What are Semiconductors? Semiconductors, at their core are simply silicone with transistors build into it them, are advanced microchips that power almost every electronic devices being made today. It is not an overstatement to say semiconductors, or computer chips, power the modern world.…

The U.S. presidential election of 2020 was a hotly-contested battle between two candidates with very different ideologies. Among the key areas of contrast were views toward climate change and energy production. Accordingly, the electoral cycle was defined by conflicting policies from pro-energy incumbent President of the United States (POTUS) Donald Trump and environment-friendly challenger Joe Biden. Upon Biden securing a 306 to 232 victory in the Electoral College, U.S policies…

As an exotic currency, the South African rand (ZAR) has been historically sensitive to world events. One of the primary reasons behind the rand's responsiveness is the lack of consistent market depth. When compared to the global majors and minors, the ZAR typically exhibits a much smaller daily traded volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Triennial Survey 2019, the South African rand accounts for 1% of total…

What Is Ant Group? Ant Group is a large Chinese financial services and technology company that is closely affiliated with Alibaba, the giant Chinese ecommerce site. Ant was founded in 2004 and then spun off as a separate company in 2014. Alibaba still owns a 33% stake in Ant. Ant is the parent company of Alipay, China's largest mobile payments platform, which was created largely to facilitate spending on Alibaba.…