The Editorial Team |

Amazon Fake Reviews Reach Holiday Season Levels During Pandemic

NEW YORK(Capital Markets in Africa) — Fake reviews on Amazon.com Inc. during the pandemic have reached levels typically seen during the holiday shopping season. About 42% of 720 million Amazon reviews assessed by the monitoring service Fakespot Inc. from March through September were unreliable, up from about 36% for the same period last year. The rise in fake reviews corresponded with the stampede online of millions of virus-avoiding shoppers. “We’ve only seen those kinds of numbers in…

Countdown to Election Tests Emerging-Market Bulls’ Resilience

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — This month’s emerging-market rally is showing signs of faltering as investors refrain from placing big bets in the final two weeks of the U.S. election campaign. Even as Democrat Joe Biden has widened his lead over President Donald Trump in recent polls, a Bank of America Corp. survey showed global fund managers expect the outcome to be contested and are ready for extreme market turbulence. While growing odds that Democrats will…

Currency Revamp Spurs Rush for New Bank Accounts in Ethiopia

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ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ethiopia’s effort to stamp out counterfeiting by introducing new currency notes is pulling people who’ve never had a bank account into the financial system. At least 1.3 million previously unbanked Ethiopians have handed in their two-decade-old banknotes over the past month since the demonetization process was started, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told lawmakers on Monday. In exchange, they were given a bank account from which they can draw…

South Africa’s Track Record Bodes Ill for Investment Drive

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa will be hard-pressed to realize its ambitions of attracting 1 trillion rand ($61 billion) of private investment in infrastructure if its past record is anything to go by. The investment drive began two years ago and is a key component of an economic blueprint unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week that aims to revive the coronavirus-battered economy. It envisions the government spending 100 billion rand on infrastructure, an…

Zambia Heads for Showdown With Bondholders as Default Looms (2)

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LUSAKA (Capital Markets in Africa) — The clock is ticking for Zambia to convince reluctant bondholders to accept an interest-payment holiday while it works out a debt-restructuring strategy. If investors refuse Zambia’s request for a six-month standstill in a key vote on Tuesday, it may become the first African nation to default since the onset of the coronavirus. That could set a precedent for how cash-strapped governments treat private and Chinese creditors. The southern African…

Wall Street Set for First $100 Billion Trading Year in a Decade

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NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Working from home hasn’t slowed down Wall Street’s trading desks. The five biggest U.S. investment banks are on pace for their first $100 billion years for trading revenue in more than a decade. In just three quarters, they’ve already generated almost $84 billion, more than any full year since 2010. Sell-side traders rode a wave of activity as markets plunged at the start of pandemic-spurred lockdowns before embarking on dramatic rebounds….

Investors Clamor for Risky Junk Debt Amid Pandemic Flare-Ups

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Bond investors are pouring money back into riskier debt in search of higher returns as Covid-19 flare-ups and clampdowns have money managers bracing for interest rates to remain low for a long time. Five of the six U.S. junk bonds that companies sold on Wednesday were increased in size to accommodate heavy demand, and yields ended up being lower than initially targeted on the deals. In the secondary market, notes…

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