Global News

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept the official cash rate (OCR) at 0.1% today and will continue to purchase government securities at the rate of $4 billion a week until at least mid February 2022. However, it decided to discontinue the target for the yield on the April 2024 bond, after the recent 3Y Yields surge. The Board reiterated that it will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation…

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.

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

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.

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.…

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…

Over the past several decades, China's international financial influence has expanded multifold. Featuring massive domestic consumption of US$6 trillion for 2020, a renowned export sector and dynamic "dual-circulation" strategy, China has evolved into a prominent global economic force. However, for a majority of the world's investment capital, the Chinese markets remain heavily restricted. With the late-2020 signing of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), China's isolationist policies are beginning…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought the world a collection of unprecedented humanitarian and economic challenges. From the virus's initial onslaught in late-February to a November surge in infection rates, COVID-19 was a primary underpinning of 2020's global capital markets. Since the onset of the novel coronavirus, infectious disease experts have warned of a potentially devastating "second wave" of the virus sweeping the globe. As the fourth quarter of 2020 commenced,…

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 proved to be a challenging period for the global economy. Unprecedented regional lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass quarantines prompted a historic downturn. Although some regions were harder hit than others, the common denominator was a rapid spike in unemployment. For heavily afflicted areas, a dramatic uptick in unemployment can have severe consequences. Traditional economic theory suggests that growing unemployment represents a downturn in…

How has Japan responded to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the globe starting in early 2020? Let's explore the Bank of Japan and the government's tactics to help out the economy. Bank Of Japan Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), has been one of the world's most proactive in monetary accommodation and asset purchases, both governmental and private securities, bonds as well as stocks, since the 2008…

Like so many other countries around the world, South Africa was faced with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how both the government and the reserve bank reacted. South African Reserve Bank On 20 March 2020, the South African Reserve Bank, the country's central bank, cut its benchmark repo, or repurchase, rate by 100 basis points to 5.25% from 6.25%. On 15 April it reduced it further by 100 basis…