The Markets

LAGoS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin broke out of a narrow trading range and wiped away this year’s losses amid a broad rally for cryptocurrencies, sparking speculation that the biggest digital asset could advance past the $50,000 mark soon.  The token rose as high as $47,583 on Monday, well above the $35,000-to-$45,000 band where it’s been stuck since early January. With the fresh gains, Bitcoin is now up about 1.9% for the year, compared…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A stealth rally in cryptocurrencies is currently underway. Investors can’t be faulted for having missed an 8% breakout in Bitcoin over the past week — a string of listless daily moves by the digital coin camouflaged a big upward swing that’s happened just as U.S. stocks are also attempting to emerge from a recent downturn. “There is a positive correlation between stocks and Bitcoin since last year and that never…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Thailand will bar the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payments for goods and services, saying the wider use of digital assets threatens the nation’s financial system and economy. Business operators — including crypto exchanges — must not provide such payment services, and are barred from acting in a manner that promotes the use of digital assets to pay for goods or services, the Securities and Exchange Commission…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Global bond markets have suffered unprecedented losses since peaking last year, as central banks including the Federal Reserve look to tighten policy to combat surging inflation. The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, a benchmark for government and corporate debt total returns, has fallen 11% from a high in January 2021. That’s the biggest decline from a peak in data stretching back to 1990, surpassing a 10.8% drawdown during the financial…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Currency speculators are placing their bets on the South African rand at a record pace, even as Russia’s assault on Ukraine sends investors fleeing from most riskier assets. Hedge funds turned net long on the rand to the tune of 13,402 contracts as of March 15, swinging from a net short position of 239 contracts the previous week. The change was the biggest since the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin’s energy use has long been a hot-button issue. Now some developers say the solution could lie in a more energy-efficient form of computer processing that, perhaps appropriately, uses lasers. When we consider Bitcoin’s energy use, really, the discussion should focus on emissions. Industry participants have worked toward improving transparency in that category the past couple of years. If we look even further back, Hal Finney – who received…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – A $18.9 million coupon payment on a bond issued by Evraz PLChas been blocked due to the Russian steelmaker’s ties to sanctioned billionaire Roman Abramovich. Evraz moved the cash a week ago, but the company’s correspondent bank, Societe Generale New York, halted its transfer to paying agent BNY Mellon for compliance reasons, the steel company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.  The block “has its roots in the…