The Markets | - Part 167

Richemont Signals Worst Is Over for High-End Watch Market

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The worst is over in the high-end Swiss watch market, if a 45 percent gain in profit at luxury-goods maker Richemont is any indication. The surge in first-half earnings came as retail inventories return to normal following Richmond’s repurchase of excess stock last year, the Geneva-based owner of Cartier and Montblanc said Tuesday in an unscheduled announcement. The shares approached a two-year high in Zurich, and their 33 percent year-to-date gain has…

Iron Ore Seen Back in $40s as China Challenges Loom in 2018

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) Iron ore may get a reprieve for the remainder of this year before tougher times return in 2018, according to Schroders Plc, which says the raw material may sink back below $50 a metric ton as the effect of credit-led stimulus in China wears off and demand concerns resurface in the top user. “The underlying supply and demand is pretty negative, so over a decent time period we wouldn’t be surprised to…

`Cautious’ BOE Makes Gilt Slide a Buy for Macquarie Investment

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The market’s pricing of two interest-rate hikes in coming months by the Bank of England is “a bit overdone” for Macquarie Investment Management and so it sees the recent fall in gilts as a buying opportunity. Markets are pricing in an 85 percent chance of a 25-basis-point rate increase for the next BOE meeting on Nov. 2, more than double the probability in early August after growing inflationary pressures in the U.K. and…

Bankers Go on a Day Trip to Blockchain’s Magical World

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Blockchain experiments are everywhere in finance these days. Actual blockchain applications that are big enough to have any lasting impact on banking, not so much. Those offenders who talk a lot without doing anything of substance have even been given a name in crypto world. “Too many people are using [blockchain] as a buzzword and are not focused on solving a real problem,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote recently. “We like…

German Investor Optimism Gains as Economy and Stocks Power Ahead

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – German investor confidence rose for a second month as stocks rallied and data signalled that Europe’s largest economy is on track for a solid expansion in the second half of the year. The ZEW Centre for European Economic Research’s index of investor expectations climbed to 17.6 in October from 17 in September. The reading compares with a median estimate in a Bloomberg survey for an increase to 20.0. After a…

Hedge Fund That Loves Bitcoin Unfazed by Surge Toward $6,000

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin-focused hedge fund BitSpread Limited isn’t interested in the price of the cryptocurrency, even as it soared close to the $6,000 mark this week. Instead, the firm is looking at something else: the price disparity between the exchanges that sell bitcoin. “We’re not interested in the price of bitcoin — high or low,” said Cedric Jeanson, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co. trader who started Bit Spread, which manages more than $25…

Blythe Masters’s Blockchain Firm Raises Money, Hires Executive

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Blythe Masters’s blockchain software firm Digital Asset Holdings LLC raised another $40 million and hired a technology executive who previously worked for software giant Microsoft Corp. and quantitative hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. The company, where former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Masters is chief executive officer, is one of several trying to reshape finance by leveraging the blockchain ledger technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. DAH’s clients include the…

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