The Markets

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — It’s harder than ever to dismiss Bitcoin as a fad or a fraud, and even longtime skeptics have come around to at least a grudging acknowledgment that cryptocurrency isn’t going away. Digital assets are rapidly entering the mainstream, and financial advisors are fielding myriad questions from clients about this rapidly growing asset class. Big-name investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller revealed Bitcoin allocations in 2020, while…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Bitcoin neared an all-time high on Monday after a record run for stocks and ahead of a listing by the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange. The token rose as much as 2.6% to $61,229, the highest in nearly a month but still short of the March 13 peak of $61,742. Bitcoin is up almost ninefold in the past year, a return that towers above that of more familiar assets like…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – If you saw a shark swimming towards you or a warm bath waiting for you, which one would you consider scary, which one dangerous? I don’t claim to be able to read minds, but something tells me that the shark seems scary to most, and a bath in no way appears to be dangerous. In his recent book, Guy Raz asks: “Why is that so many of us are…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — For a glimpse of how quickly and unevenly economies are recovering from the pandemic, look no further than the market for shippingraw materials. Rising demand for everything from soybeans to steel has sent the cost of hauling dry goods soaring more than 50% this year. Manufacturing, which first picked up in China, is now accelerating elsewhere, and countries are stepping up commodity purchases to rebuild stockpiles after running them…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — In the gig economy, who’s the boss? Gig work refers to jobs done by workers who aren’t employees, at least according to the companies they work for. The term is most often used to describe people deployed for piecemeal tasks through smartphone apps created by tech startups, such as Uber Technologies Inc.’s ride-hail and delivery drivers. Such arrangements are a linchpin of the field that used to be called…

ICE Brent crude oil front-month prices averaged $65.7 per barrel (p/b) in March 2021, constituting an increase of 5.5% from $62.3 p/b in February 2021 and a rise of 95% from $33.7 p/b in March 2020. The recovery in oil prices was mainly due to improving demand prospects amid the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine world-wide, as well as to supply discipline from the recurrent OPEC and non-OPEC output cuts, and to lower oil production…