The Markets

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – It’s hardly controversial to short the pound, but Crispin Odey and his ilk also have their eyes on a low-tax, low-regulation, no-deal Brexit paradise. Philip Hammond is officially “outside the tent,” to use Lyndon Johnson’s phrase. After losing his job as U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer and then his badge as a Conservative MP by rebelling against Boris Johnson’s hardball Brexit strategy, Hammond has kicked up an almighty stink by accusing Johnson…

LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) – Commodity investors get to draw a line this week under what’s been an eventful quarter while assessing fresh signals about how energy, crop, and metals markets will fare into the year-end. In the U.S.-China standoff, traders will be on alert for a set-piece address from President Xi Jinping on Tuesday for hints on whether there’s much chance of a resolution. In energy, the fallout from the strikes against Saudi facilities is in…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The Public Investment Corp. is poised to take a stake in Liquid Telecom if Africa’s biggest fiber company goes ahead with a planned initial public offering, according to people familiar with the situation. The PIC, which manages the pension funds of South African government workers, agreed to set aside funds to guarantee a $375 million loan to Liquid parent Econet Global Ltd. from Deutsche Bank AG, the three people said. The money manager would…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.S. government just argued that Treasuries are sufficiently transparent when it comes to prices. So why can’t investors agree on what those prices are? The $16 trillion Treasuries market is the world’s biggest and most liquid bond market. But unlike stocks, it lacks a mechanism for establishing end-of-day prices that everyone can use. That means money managers sometimes value identical securities at different levels. Tradeweb Markets Inc., one of…

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) U.S. President Donald Trump backed his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, as a “highly respected leader” who “brought order,” dismissing small protests that pointed to simmering economic frustrations. “Demonstrations? No, everybody has demonstrations,” Trump said during a meeting with El-Sisi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. “Egypt has a great leader, he’s highly respected, he’s brought order. Before he was here, there was very little order, there was chaos….

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Whether the U.K. leaves the European Union with no deal or clinches a last-minute agreement in the coming weeks, Brexit has already taken a toll on London’s finance industry. Three years and three prime ministers since the vote, fraught negotiations, and political turmoil have sapped confidence in the industry, putting financial firms on the verge of moving thousands of jobs — and possibly 1 trillion pounds ($1.24 trillion) of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The first Bitcoin futures contracts that settle in the digital currency debuted Monday in thin trading, starting a new chapter in the coin’s tumultuous 10-year history. As of 11 a.m. in New York, 38 of the futures contracts offered on the Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s Bakkt platform had changed hands. The price of Bitcoin slumped 2.4% to $9,892. The initial federally regulated market to buy and sell Bitcoin could entice conservative investors who have…