The Markets

MAPUTO (Capital Markets in Africa) — French energy giant Total SE suspended its $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique indefinitely due to an escalation of violence in the area, including a March attack by Islamic State-linked militants. The decision is a blow to Total, which bought an operating stake in the project for $3.9 billion in 2019, hoping to start exporting the super-chilled fuel by the end of 2024. The first phase of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigerians have been accumulating foreign currencies to protect their wealth from naira volatility and surging inflation, according to a research paper in a journal published by the Central Bank of Nigeria. “Higher real-exchange rate volatility is associated with an increased level of currency substitution,” central bank economists including Isaiah Ajibola, Sylvanus Udoette, Rabia Muhammad and John Anigwe said in the paper available on the central bank’s website. There is…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — A $1,000 invested in dogecoin at the start of the year would be worth over $68,500, based on MarketWatch’s calculation. It’s the day of the doge. At least, that’s how proponents of dogecoin have deemed April 20. Staunch supporters of dogecoin , which was created as a parody coin, a lighthearted rival to bitcoin, are aiming to push the value of the surging crypto to $1 on Tuesday, which has…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — As if the struggle to secure its meager supplies of Covid-19 vaccines wasn’t bad enough, Africa is now having a hard time getting people to take them. Only 5.22 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have been vaccinated, a region with a population of about a billion. From suspicions about Chinese-made vaccines in Zimbabwe and conspiracy theories in Ivory Coast about Covid-19 being “a planned event by foreign actors” to Somalia, where the Islamist…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Wall Street bears battered by the Reddit crowd earlier this year have yet to regain their gumption, even with stocks at records and valuations near two-decade highs. The median short interest in members of the S&P 500 sits at just 1.6% of market value, near a 17-year low, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. In Europe, a short-covering frenzy has sent bearish bets collapsing like never before in Morgan…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — A drop in cryptocurrency-linked stocks in the wake of Bitcoin’s slide and Coinbase Global Inc.’s choppy debut is stirring a rallying cry from optimists who reject fears that the sector has peaked. A global, Bloomberg-curated basket of equities linked to crypto trading or Bitcoin mining fell some 9% over the past week, paring 2021’s climb to about 130%. A weekend Bitcoin plunge rattled crypto mania, but the token has since…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — The Bitcoin rollercoaster is back. The cryptocurrency fell by as much as 15% Sunday with rival coins like Ether and XRP also plunging. The retreat came after Bitcoin hit a record high of more than $64,000 Wednesday as the stock-market debut of the U.S.’s largest exchange for the tokens, Coinbase Global Inc., stoked enthusiasm for all things crypto. While prices steadied on Monday with Bitcoin holding just below $57,000, that’s…