Money Round Up

Saudi Arabia’s Neom is planning a debut riyal bond sale as it searches for cash to fund its $1.5 Trillion Futuristic City, Micron is all set to receive more than US$6 Billion Dollars as it helps to build chip making factories in the United States and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has signaled interest rates will be higher for longer due to persistent inflation, how has this affected the US Stocks and Treasuries market? Saudi Arabia Neom is currently planning a riyal bond sale for later this year. The project is seeking about 1.5 Trillion Dollars to finish purchasing construction materials to build the first of its kind futuristic city. The majority of the equity funding coming so far has been from Saudi Arabia Sovereign wealth fund, led by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. There has also been additional funding that has been sought after by Neom. There were plans for Neom’s to have a flagship project, The Line, which was to be a zero carbon city with “vertically layered” buildings were scaled back. The original length of The Line was to be 105 miles but is now expected to reach only a mile and a half by 2030. Sindalah, Neom’s first luxury resort, will span across 840,000 squared metres and will offer a marina, golf course, beach club and yacht club. The Line will be a vertically layered city with buildings for work, living and leisure while Oxagon on the other hand will be an octagonal floating port city. Neom will also be bringing an exclusive beach club to Sindalah. This partnership with Saudi Arabian music entertainment company MDLBeast was recently signed. As the AI technology continues its boom and dominance throughout 2024 other sectors have continued to benefit due to the new increase in demand. One such sector is the semiconductors industry which sees the likes of TSMC based in Taiwan and ASML based in the Netherlands. A new company set to enter the AI chip making space and it is in the United States, Micron. Micron began in 1978 as a four person semiconductor company and quickly grew into the Fortune 500 list for fastest growing companies by 1994. The Biden Administration has provided a grant to Micron up to US$6.1 Billion Dollars to assist with setting up semiconductor plants in New York and Idaho. The company announced plans to construct a US$15 Billion Dollar plant in Boise, Idaho, where it is currently based. A month later they announced plans to expand into a complex near Syracuse, New York, with a pledge of US$20 Billion Dollars to start at the end of the decade and as much as US$100 Billion Dollars over the next 2 decades or more. This complex could house up to four new manufacturing plants. The passing of the law was to ensure that America was not so heavily dependent on international counterparties for manufacturing of chips as stated by Mr. Schumer. He was advocate for getting the Chips Act passed. As technology improves and human beings get more dependent on devices, United States wants to have control over where the most dependent and sought after technology comes from. Hence the goal to be a large manufacturer in the semiconductor space again. US Fed Chair Jerome Powell has hinted that interest rates may remain higher for longer as inflation is still not where they want it to be. The United Health Group’s carried the majority of the burden to the Dow Jones success as earnings increased much more than expected. Revenues grew by nearly US$8 Billion dollars from its previous year closing the quarter at about US$99 Billion Dollars. The stock price increased by 5.3% over it’s previous day to US$501 as at April 19, 2024.

Coming up on today’s episode McDonalds buys back 225 stores from their Israeli counterpart, Gucci spends $1.3 Billion Euros on a new office in Europe and the US Economy is trending upwards again back over the 3.2% in February 2024 carrying them back up to levels last seen in 2023.

On today’s show BlackRock seeks to invest in the Kenyan Stock Market. Boeing CEO resigns after a crisis with the risk of the safety of the airplanes escalating and also Taiwan chipmakers return to work after that massive earthquake experienced earlier in the month. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company has decided that they will be moving some allocations from their portfolio into the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The Nairobi Securities Exchange was considered the worst performing exchange in 2023, but things have turned around for them within the first quarter of 2024. Along with that, there was also a change in policy surrounding the economic conditions in Kenya that was made by President William Ruto’s administration. Kenya is currently trying to be more attractive to foreign investors through controlled borrowing and severe measures imposed. Kenya is seen as a powerhouse across the East African region, being the main choice for international events, organizations and home to some of the most profitable companies across Africa. Blackrock has about $9 trillion dollars in managed funds and Kenya was one of 10 countries selected as a means to diversify from the US and other main traditionally targeted markets. So the news would be much welcomed to the Kenyan economy and along with it would bring new interest, and restored confidence with the government and the economy as a whole. Boeing CEO, Dave Calhoun will step down from the company at the end of 2024 after a disastrous release to the 737 max 9 aircrafts. Boeing has had a troubled few years being responsible for majority of airline passengers safety being put at risk and also loss of lives. Things took a tumultuous turn when Alaska Airlines had to ground a flight shortly after take off due to a loud explosion heard in January 204. Since then the pressure has really been on the aircraft manufacturer who has now lost trust by both regulators and consumers alike. Boeing is currently trying their very best to fix safety and quality problems after their most recent incident back in January 2024. The airplane manufacturer is currently in talks to purchase Spirit Aerospace as it tries to get more control over their supply chain. Taiwan has experienced their largest earthquake for the first time in 25 years. The city of Hualein had reported a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killing at least 9 persons and injuring over 900 more. Workers in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have all resumed work. When the earthquake struck, a few offices actually evacuated and others were closed for the day. Inspections were done within the buildings and the workers were then granted permission to resume working. Want to get in touch with us? Send us an email at: moneyroundup876@gmail.com

On today’s program, Donald Trump takes his company public, Sam Bankman Fried was sentenced for 25 years after committing one of the biggest financial frauds in US History and a Shipping vessel crashed into the Baltimore bridge, causing it to collapse. How will this affect the people of Baltimore? Donald Trump had taken his Truth Social Media Company public and it was valued close to US$8 Billion Dollars. Trump Media &Technology, the parent company behind Truth Social Media had actually merged with Digital World Acquisition Corporate, a shell company known to take other companies public, and is now trading under the stock symbol DJT, which represents Trump’s initials when he was president of the United States. Research suggested that since the stock was listed on Monday, Donald Trump had actually netted about US$4.6 Billion Dollars and placed him for the first time ever on the Forbes 500 richest persons in the world. Truth Social was actually created after the president candidate was sensitized on Instagram and banned from Twitter for allegations he instituted a riot at Capitol Hill in 2021. Truth Social has been running in a deficit since inception carrying tens of millions of dollars in losses and failed to attract advertisers and new users. The Social Media company has really struggled with generating revenues, creating only US$5M since its inception in 2021. Trump is one of the most influential persons on Social Media, where he has a following of 34M on Facebook, 24M on Instagram and over 87M on Twitter now X. He was only able to attract 6.8M followers on Truth Social, which suggested that the popularity of the Social Media company is low. With the popularity of Trump on other social media platforms, it was recorded that around 52M shares were traded causing the stock to be halted. Typically stocks volumes that trade are normally 1% at most on a day to day basis, but the media company actually saw many times their amount traded which meant the demand and hype around it was high. Sam Bankman Fried will be spending his prime years in solitary confinement after he was charged with one of if not the biggest financial fraud cases in American History. The former FTX founder was sentenced to 25 years behind bars after he was alleged to steal US$8 Billion Dollars in client funds in 2023. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, dismissed claims Fried made of FTX clients not losing funds and also has evidence that he lied during his hearing trial in 2023. A jury had found Fried guilt of 7 counts of fraud and conspiracy counts. For more details on the trial head on over to our episode entitled “US Inflation Rises Again Amidst an Optimistic Downfall.” https://open.spotify.com/episode/3m0E9rY0k4VZez6ZzlXu1j?si=X2R7KFS6T-qzh4MyjaYzpA Judge Kaplan has shared that Bankman-Fried has shown no remorse for the crimes he committed. Bankman-Fried offered an apology to FTX customers and to his colleagues, but no admittance of the crime or any wrongdoing by himself or the company was made. Bankman-Fried had three colleagues that had testified against him during the trials of which they admit that they were advised by the “crypto king” himself to pull funds from FTX and use to try to stop or at least minimize the losses that Alamaeda Research faced during the time. All three colleagues pleaded guilty.  It is believed that Bankman-Fried used customer funds to purchase lavish real estate. A shipping vessel that is believed to have lost power on its route out of the Baltimore harbour crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge where 6 persons are presumed dead. The persons that fell over were a part of a crew that was fixing potholes when the ship crashed. Rescuers had saved two persons but another six were unable to be accounted for. In the early 1800s the harbour was a place where both enslaved and free black workers could work. The port and area around the port is filled with a lot of immigrant workers who have little to no health insurance.

The US Department of Justice sues Apple for their monopoly dominance with their IPhones, The Bank of Japan will raise interest rates for the first time in 17 years, how has the Japanese economy responded to this news? And there is expected to be three interest rate cuts for the remainder of 2024 in the United States. The Department of Justice has sued Apple sharing that their IPhone ecosystem caused high valuation at the cost of users, developers and competitors. The government is still considering breaking up the company as the Department of Justice said there will be some structural relief if the US were to win. The lawsuit claimed that Apple’s anti-competitive behaviour went far beyond IPhones and Apple watches. It went even within the advertising, FaceTime and news offerings by Apple. The Justice of Department shared that for Apple to keep consumers purchasing the IPhones, had moved to block cross-platform messaging app, limited third party wallet and smart watch compatibility. A spokesperson shared that complying with these regulations will cause the company money, can potentially hinder product development and improvements in technology and also affect their customer demand as it stands. The lawsuit filed also will see the DOJ focusing on Smartwatches. Users who purchase an Apple Watch will see themselves with an increase in costs if they do not continue to purchase IPhones, as the technology is designed and set up in such a way that without an IPhone, one does not get the most out of the Smartwatch. The Bank of Japan has decided after 17 years that it is finally time has come to raise interest rates for the nation. Japan, the last nation on the planet to have negative interest rates has finally decided that the time is come to change how the economy has been operating. A company generally has negative interest rates when they want persons within to spend. This is because negative interest rates means that they would be paying the banks to keep their money and so it was a way for the government to boost consumer spending. Expectations that Japan would raise interest rates started circulating after governor Kazuo Ueda went in office last April. Official reports suggested that even though the Japanese economy has been slowing, core inflation remained at the 2% target by the BOJ. The decision that led to Japan raising interest rates were increase in wages to help workers cope with rising cost of living. The United States economy is expected to see 3 interest rate cuts for the remainder of 2024. Federal Chair Jerome Powell shared that the recent high pressures has not changed the plans for the Fed to start slowly lowering price pressures as the central bank has 3 more rate cuts while ensuring economic growth. The Fed has also left interest rates unchanged and released new data showing that the economy is expected to grow by 2.1%. The Fed also plans to continue implementing it’s “soft landing” from their post pandemic 40 year high experience, though documents has shown that officials need to pay keep attention to price pressures to ensure it eases. A press conference shared by Powell was that the Fed will continue their fight to get inflation down no matter how much resilience and fight is put up by it. If inflation doesn’t go down as desired, then interest rates will be held high for as long as needed. Have any questions, queries or concerns regarding what was spoken today, get in touch with us via email: moneyroundup876@gmail.com

On today’s show we will look at the US inflation rate going back up to 3.2%, what does this mean for persons living in America? Also the US House has just passed a bill that could force TikTok to sell the company or be banned for good from the nation. The US inflation rate has risen again to 3.2% this time as President Joe Biden puts the American economy at heart of his re-election. Many analysts had expected the inflation rate to remain at the 3.1% it was a month prior. Policymakers on the other hand are believed to be trying their best to get inflation down to 2%. The interest rate cuts that should have occurred in March 2024 have now been pushed back to June or even later due to the economy currently in a stalled stage. The economy has performed much better than expected to the inflation and high interest rates, but is believed to have dampened President Biden’s policies and how he sells them to voting Americans and so this poses great risk for the US Economy. The CPI grew by 0.4% over it’s January 2024 rate to end February at 3.2%. The sector that saw the largest increase in the CPI was Transportation Services which was 9.9% and grew by 1.4% over its previous month. Airline fares increased by 3.6% over the month. This is the largest indicator within the transportation sector and suggested that as the time gets warmer, more people will be seeking to explore within the country and also abroad, so the demand for airline tickets will increase. The US House of representatives has just passed a bill that could either force TikTok to sell their business or be banned from the United States. TikTok owners ByteDance has been given 6 months by the house of representatives to either sell a controlling ownership of their company, or be banned from the USA altogether. President Joe Biden has stated that if the bill does make it through the Senate, he will be signing it as soon as it reaches his desk. This could stir up even more diplomatic tensions between the already very fragile two nations. ByteDance, the Beijing based company is actually registered in the Cayman Islands and has offices all across Europe and the United States of America. Bytdance was founded in 2012, has over 110,000 employees globally with offices spanning across 30 countries and they serve over 2.5 billion persons globally. ByteDance has generated US$82.5 Billion Dollars in revenue for 2022 and the company has made over US$6 Billion Dollars net profits. ByteDance originally founded Musical.ly, but had shut it down after a few years and merged the app with their very popular Chinese one, TikTok, upon which they were now able to penetrate other markets and expand outside of China. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is currently visiting Washington, had said in a video that if TikTok is banned in the US, it would ultimately lead to billions of dollars taken away from content creators and small businesses. The company will have up to 165 days after the bill is signed by President Joe Biden to file a legal challenger. Have a question or just want to share your feedback Get in touch with us at: moneyroundup876@gmail.com

Apple getting sued 1.8 Billion Euros by the EU, Elon Musk is currently challenging OpenAI saying they had breached an agreement in which he agreed to in 2015 when he helped start it and chip maker ASML is looking to move their business out of the Netherlands. The European Commission has fined Apple 1.8 Billion Euros for violations in how they share and allow for users to use streaming sites on their IPhones and IPads. The investigations revealed that restrictions were placed on the developers to prevent them from informing clients about other cheaper payment options outside of the App Store. They had failed to have their developers inform users of other, cheaper music streaming sites outside of the Apple ecosystem and as such this is considered illegal under EU antitrust laws. Due to the Monopoly behaviour exhibited, this has been considered unfair trading conditions. The case has been ongoing since 2019 when Spotify had first informed the EU of a 30% purchasing fee in which Apple was charging them. To add to that, they were unable to tell consumers that there was a much cheaper payment option outside of the App Store. Apple shared that Spotify was able to grow their company into the largest digital music site in the world. Apple responded sharing that they helped markets thrive through the use of the App Store and they don’t find the reasoning just and as such they will appeal. However a response from the Luxemburg court, which is the second highest in Europe will take years and until such time Apple will have to pay the fine and comply with the EU regulations. Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and it’s founder Sam Altman stating that they have pivoted from their original purpose as a non for profit whose sole purpose was to design and develop Artificial Intelligence for the good of humanity. The law suit filed states that Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman approached Elon Musk and asked him to assist with developing the technology as a non for profit. However by 2015 the company abandoned their mission and has pivoted to a now for profit company. Musk went on further sharing that the three had originally begun developing technology as an artificial generative intelligence (AGI), where the machines would be able to handle tasks much in the same way that humans would do, but it was of the sole purpose to benefit humanity. Musk believes that OpenAI has made Artificial Intelligence seem like the acceptable new way for technology with the launch of GPT-4 which essentially is a Microsoft Product not OpenAI. Musk wants OpenAI to publicize their research and technology and be barred from using GPT-4 for financial gains via Microsoft or any other individual. Dutch chipmaker and one of the leading European tech giant, ASML has threatened to move their production outside of the country. This comes after there have been changes to the migration laws surrounding the Netherlands, where the Prime Minister has started cracking down on the amount of persons that can immigrate into the country. CEO of ASML Peter Wennink shared in January that the company can only grow if there are enough persons within the country. As such the government party have been left confused as the semiconductor company is the largest within the Netherlands. ASML ranks highly amongst tech companies across Europe and 40% of their 23,000 employees account for workers who aren’t even Dutch. ASML has a Market Cap of approximately 379 Billion Euros and a share price closing March 7, 2024 of 949.20 Euros that grew 3.74% over its previous day. So losing this company would be a big blow for the economy. Wennink had shared during an investor call that the governments should be careful about the labour laws they are trying to implement, as by trying to protect their people, they could be hurting everyone instead.

On today’s show we will look into Bitcoin going above $60,000 for the first time in almost 3 years, why is this important and also the significance of the Bitcoin halving that’s coming up also Nvidia sees a high rise in valuation what has fueled this growth and what next for the company. Bitcoin, the world’s most famous and largest crypto currency has once again passed the US$60,000 mark and gotten everyone talking about it. Coming weeks after the Bitcoin ETF was approved, this new resurgence in price has brought a lot of attention to Bitcoin, bringing it back in the spotlight with everyone. The Bitcoin ETF had caused price in Bitcoin to rise weeks before it was actually approved. Then when the approval occurred, it went to just shy of US$49,000. A lot of this was due to new funds being created which would have increased the demand for the crypto currency. Nvidia has been having one of the best times of their lives. The company which focuses on AI generative chips has seen their valuation reaching US$2 Trillion dollars and an all-time high price of US$823.94, this company shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Nvidia has been one of the forerunners in the AI space and the largest AI chip maker to date. The company started gaining traction in 2023 with OpenAI teaming up Microsoft, which made everyone exposed to the Artificial Intelligence scene better off. Now one year later and Nvidia has grown even further. There are only 3 other companies world-wide to have surpassed the US$2 Trillion Dollar Market Cap, Apple Microsoft and Saudi Aramco.

Coming up on today’s episode, Capital One has started their process for a take-over bid on Discover Financials, tensions rise as South Africans head for the poll after high employment figures were recorded for 2023 and Donald Trump launches his own sneakers line a day after he was ordered to pay $354M by the courts. After months of high interest rates, high inflation and a Biden Administration that has focused on competition, Capital One has announced their bid to take over Discover Finance in a US$35B all stock takeover. This would make them the 6th largest bank in America due to asset size, loans and credit card transactions and be the 5th largest banking takeover in US history and third since the 21 century behind JP Morgan’s acquisition of Bank One in 2004 and Bank of America’s purchase of FleetBoston of that same year. So the deal with Capital One would boost their usage and increase the competition between the big credit card networks. To add to that, Capital One is said to charge consumers the most with their card as stated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau survey, with interest rates passing 30%. Senator Elizabeth Warren has cautioned regulators that they should block this deal from happening. Research suggested that Senator Warren suggested that having Capital One take over Discover would hurt consumers, create an even bigger problem for the financial stability of America and ultimately lead to higher costs and fees for cardholders. Jeremy Kress, Professor of Business Law at the University of Michigan, stated that this deal would be the first major test of the Biden Administration since they announced in 2021 of their plans to boost competition. South Africans are currently experiencing high levels of employment just a few weeks before their next general election. The Statistics Agency had shared a presentation that sectors including construction, agriculture and trade just to name a few have contributed to the rise in unemployment for the country. This fourth quarter rise in unemployment follows eight straight quarter of job gains. Due to the fact that unemployment has been so bad in South Africa and economic growths have been far below par, these have been major issues at the polls and the governing party, African National Congress (ANC) has been losing a lot of supporters while opposition parties inadvertently started gaining. Many analysts believe that the ANC will lose power for the first time in over 3 decades when they first came into power and elected Nelson Mandela as president at the end of the apartheid. US former president and now president elected Donald Trump was recently slapped with a US$354M sanction for financial frauds which the courts ruled the former president lied about his assets, property values and other things that would influence his net worth in the past. However a day later, president candidate Trump, made a candid appearance at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia to launch and promote his new brand “Trump Sneakers.” Trump could be seen entering where he received simultaneous cheering and booing from the crowd as he walked on stage with a golden pair of sneakers with the American flag at the top and a T to the side, which was available for pre order at US$399 and will be called “Never Surrender High Top Sneakers”. There will only be 1,000 of the golden sneakers sold and it has already been sold out on the website.

Elon Musk’s US$56 Billion compensation pay deal has been cancelled in a Delaware Court, Saudi Arabia is considering plans to sell more shares in Aramco as soon as February 2024 and FTX customers and creditors who can prove their losses have a high possibility of retrieving their funds from the now bankrupt crypto exchange. A judge in Delaware has sided with a shareholder who questioned a pay package for Elon Musk worth $56 Billion dollars and stated that it was excessive. If any appeals fail, the board will have to come up with another way to compensate Mr. Musk. A shareholder of the company Richard Tornetta had filled a lawsuit half a decade ago stating that the chief executive acted improperly during negotiations of the packages as the board was not acting independently to Elon Musk. The US$56 Billion dollar deal is said to be the largest compensation package for any executive and would add to his already large net worth. Elon Musk had shared in November 2022 that the compensation would be used for international space travel. Musk had shared that it was a part of his plan to get humans living on Mars and Tesla wanted to be at the forefront of that movement. There was a lot of back and forths with the court and the plaintiff, however he recommended that the company either lowered the compensation package or find a new CEO. The negotiation proved fruitful for the EV Car maker as in 2021 when the package deal was signed, Tesla’s market capitalization skyrocketed from US$50 Billion to US$1 Trillion dollars. Elon Musk also wants to hold 25% voting rights in the company, as it stands right now, Musk owns 13% of shares in Tesla. One of the largest if not the largest oil company in the Middle East that is also state owned, Aramco, is planning on selling US$10 Billion dollars worth of shares as early as February 2024. The Saudi Arabian government ordered on Tuesday that the oil giant, Aramco should stop its expansion plan and focus on a more sustainable 12 billion barrels per day. This is 1 billion barrels less than the 13 billion barrels announced in 2020, with demand growth slowing down. Saudi Aramco as research states is the world’s largest oil company and is said to be worth US$2.02 Trillion dollars. Account holders and creditors are more likely than not to get back their funds from the collapsed crypto exchange FTX. FTX had been forced to undergo liquidation after filing for bankruptcy back in 2023. Now FTX can confidently state that they are able to repay any customer or creditor back their full investment as long as they are able to prove the amount they had invested into or loaned the crypto exchange. It should be noted that there are a few clauses to this repayment as well. The full repayment amount will be done based on the petition date value of the claims and not the actual amount the investor had placed in the company. Later in the hearing the judge approved a motion with the debtors for the digital assets to be converted into US Dollars and then used to repay the customers.

Argentine workers have staged a protest less than 2 months into president Javier Milei’s elected term, how has the economy been affected? It has been 4 months since the Arm Holdings Company had their IPO, how has the company been performing since? and the troubles for Boeing gets worse as US regulators have now ordered the company to seize and desist from any further productions of the 737 Max 9 aircrafts. When President Javier Milei took office about 2 months ago, he had promised that he was going to change the way Argentina would do things, he had done something that no other world leader has ever done before. He devalued the Argentine pesos against the US Dollar by about 50%. Less than 2 months into his term and inflation within Argentina the worst of any Latin American country, skyrocketing to 211%, President Milei’s plan to cut spending and increase privatization, are now seeming to be a tall tale. The government has announced that anyone found to be partaking within the strike will lose a day’s pay however it is not written in law and if any infringement is made to transportation or the roads, then that person can be fined or even sentenced to spend time within jail. All is not lost as yet though as the General Confederation of Labour (GCL) had actually gotten the courts to temporarily halt some measures as it pertains to labour within the decree. The governing party in power has shared that the stringent and harsh measures are needed as the country has been living with enormous spending that has done nothing but leave the country with a huge fiscal deficit, triple digit inflation and now a US$44 Billion dollar deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now the most anticipated and largest IPO that was held in 2023 during a time when economies were suffering from high inflation rates, rising interest rates and low investor confidence as many worried a recession was coming, not only in the United States of America but throughout other economies worldwide has been trading publicly and we have decided to take a look into the company 4 months since it’s debut on the NYSE. Arm Holdings was considered the largest chip maker for cellphones accounting for about 95% of the global phone market. Many investors and analysts had feared that the valuation was too large and not much growth would be experienced for the future. But one thing those analysts forgot to take into consideration was innovation and creativity. Arm has now shifted their focus from just mobile phone chip making to computers and they already have the infrastructure to go large scale with it. The new chip developed by Arm’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X, based on the Oryon processor is said to have 12 CPU Cores peaking at 4.3GHz. Qualcomm had invited special reporters to observe 20 Oryon powered laptops being tested until October 30, 2023, the same day as Apple had launched the M3 series chip. Qualcomm has a much larger market share and reach, by targeting Windows powered laptops, Apple’s direct competitors in the laptop world and who has far more OS users than Apple. With these new upgrades, Windows machines are now expected to finally give the Macbooks a well deserved competition in terms of their processor, speed and performance. US regulators have ordered a seize and desist operation for the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts. The FAA has hinted that the Boeing 737 Max aircrafts that were grounded after a blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight may resume flights in the next coming days once inspections are completed.  This was welcomed by Alaska Airlines and the United Airlines who had to cancel thousands of flights resulting in a loss of revenues for the companies. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are currently getting more and more frustrated with Boeing who have brought nothing more than worries and pain to their revenue stream since ordering and using the 737 Max line.

Bitcoin ETF gets SEC Approval, what does this mean for the crypto space going forward? China’s population has declined for a second year in a row and De Beers cuts some of it’s diamond prices by as much as 10%. On Wednesday January 10, 2024, history was finally made, after 10 years of back and forth with the SEC and numerous rejections, companies given the greenlight and when it was time for approval, faults were found. The United States Securities regulators finally approved an exchange traded fund to track Bitcoin. The SEC had approved 11 Bitcoin ETFs application coming from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, Ark Investments who partnered with 21Shares, a crypto ETP issuer, Fidelity, Invesco and VanEck. Other companies that were approved include Grayscale, which has been one of the pioneers for this and also had their Bitcoin Trust which they wanted to convert into an ETF application declined, Bitwise, the largest US crypto fund in America, Hashdex, Valkyrie, BZX, WisdomTree and Franklin Templeton. This approval is a great milestone and history in the making for the much controversial asset. The approval of the Bitcoin ETF allows for investors, both institutional and retail, to gain exposure into the crypto currency, without actually holding it. This can be used as a gateway or the beginning to a path that would not have been trotted otherwise by many. A country that was once considered overpopulated, so much so that the government had implemented a policy of 1 birth rate per family for residents as a measure to keep the country from extreme overpopulation has for the second consecutive year seen a slowdown in population growth. Research suggested that China has been fighting with policies that led to an aging population and women have also decided to not give as much births as in the past. During 2023 China was overtaken by India as the nation with largest population as declared by the United Nations. The woes for China will get worse if things continue on this path. Research suggested that as the population continues aging and birth rate slows, the cost for aged care will increase and not much financial support will be there to fund it as the tax paying bracket will get smaller as time passes. Care for children is expensive within China, and this is one of the reasons why a lot of young people prefer not having children. To add to that, Chinese tradition is very stringent and they focus a lot on honour and family, self-discipline, academic achievement and respect for authority. South African British company De Beers, a diamond miner and seller company has announced that they will cut the prices of their diamonds in a bid to increase sales. Lab grown diamonds have also contributed to the reduction in demand, as a diamond can be created within a few weeks and the costs for miners, smelters and shapers are all taken out of the equation, making lab grown diamonds around 50% or more cheaper than a naturally grown one. A spike in sales in the Asian market for luxury products, more particularly China where diamond demand was high during the COVID – 19 pandemic has also fallen. Wholesale supply and demand have started seeing some increases while polished diamonds have regained stabilization with decreased inventory. As such the demand for natural diamonds are trending lower and the supply of rough cut diamonds are enough to match the demand, so as to not have a glut on the market, driving prices further down. Polished diamonds have regained stability in its prices though lab grown diamonds have grown significantly in popularity as they are significantly cheaper in prices.

Coming up on today’s program, escalations arise as tensions heat up in the Red Sea, are shipping routes disrupted for 2024? Boeing 737 Max 9 has been grounded as issues were found on an Alaska Airlines flight, what does this mean for the aircraft makers going forward? And the Grand slam season has started again, how much can winners expect for each round played? With the increasing attacks on the Red Seas by Houthi militants, large shipping couriers are now more than ever going around the Cape of Good Hope, avoiding the shorter and more popular Red Seas journey. With couriers opting to go around Africa, this increases not only the mileage, but also time and costs for moving products across Asia and Europe and now everyone is worried that another onslaught of inflation may arise. With ships being redirected around Africa, it is expected to increase shipping costs by about US$1 million in extra fuel for a round trip across Asia to Europe and also driving up insurance costs. Jet and Diesel fuel being transported from the Middle East to Asia are being delayed along with consumer goods, commodities, clothing and food between Asia and Europe. The tensions have also caused for both US and UK militant troops to now take more drastic measures in stabilising and maintaining the Red Sea. The disruptions and conflicts within the Red Sea aren’t going away anytime for now. So ships and large couriers, will have to continue using the more expensive and longer routes around the Cape of Good Hope as things continuously get heated in the Red Sea. Now, the Boeing 737 Max 9 planes have been grounded again, this time after an Alaska Airlines flight panel blew out mid-air. Boeing had responded sharing they don’t mind any inspections of their 737 – 9 aeroplanes as they would have the same configuration as the Alaska Airlines flight. Boeing further shared that safety is their biggest concern and they are filled with deep regret for the impacts held on customers and passengers due to the recent blowout. This recent negative event has added to a long list of bad news and worries for Boeing, in particular the 737 Max line of airplanes. The current share price for Boeing has seen an even further reduction now closing at US$222.66 and the company is now valued at US$134.7 billion dollars, almost half their all-time market cap of US$248 billion dollars in 2019. One of the most beloved sports of the royal family and fans alike, that is filled with high intensity, passion and determination. Played on a court with a racket, a ball and a net, I am talking about the lovable sport of tennis. The Australian Open has already gotten underway on January 7, 2024 and marks the start of the grand slam season for 2024. Equal pay has been a big topic in tennis over the years and so men and women’s champions will be carrying home the same pay.

Coming up on today’s program the Red Sea conflict has escalated again, how will this affect the shipping industry going forward? TikTok Aims to sell $17.5 Billion Dollars worth of merchandise to Americans this year and as water continues to dry up in the Panama Canal, is it worth saving? Just a week after the United States had announced they were sending militant groups into the Red Sea to protect cargo vessels traveling through, the Yemen Houthis strike again. As war in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine continue, Yemen militants continue their attacks and have made it clear that until aid is sent into Gaza, they will continue attacking any ships they believe are destined for Israel. This will now increase the delays in expected arrival of goods, pushing costs up again and making it more expensive to transport items. Thomas O’Brien who owns a family gaming and gifting business in the United Kingdom had shared in a recent interview with the BBC that with the new attacks by the Houthi militants and the rerouting of the ships, his shipping costs have soared by 250%. With the new attacks in the Red Seas and conflicts escalating even with the reinforcement of US Militants, Mr. O’Brien and other UK business owners are extremely worried about the new prices in shipping costs and delays to be expected. With these new delays, business owners who rely heavily on shipped products will now have to plan with their counterparties as the way things are currently happening, there will be a lot of chaos. If it is a case where you rely on a manufacturer in another country and you had already agreed to increase the orders and shipment by a particular day or week, having things pushed back an additional one or two weeks will run the risk of missed sales and opportunities. Some manufacturers may be flexible and able to increase the production volume for you in advanced, but if they serve hundreds, thousands or even millions of other clients, then it may be a little bit more impossible for them to make all these adjustments and changes to suit you. Chinese super giant social media app TikTok has recently announced that they plan on increasing their merchandise sales to US consumers to US$17.5 Billion Dollars. If you are unaware, TikTok had launched TikTok shop somewhere around mid-2023. This allows for brands to connect with content creators and so they would be able to link their products directly in their videos and consumers can purchase directly without leaving the app. The company plans to focus on the entertainment and viral videos to expand the growth of the marketplace TikTok shop. Something their rivals would not have access to. TikTok which was founded over 10 years ago by former CEO and founder of ByteDance Zhang Yiming and cofounder and current chairman Liang Rubo, not only built but exploded the social media app in popularity and value to now be worth over US$200 billion dollars. At a time when the social media space was dominated by Instagram with their picture sharing ability and Snapchat with their disappearing messages after 24 hours, TikTok came with something new, fresh and unique. So the term TikTok trend became popular and during the COVID-19 pandemic, artist would release their songs to streaming site where persons would take up on the TikTok app and do dances or some crazy challenge that took the world by storm. The Panama Canal is currently experiencing below normal levels of water. About a century ago woodlands were flooded with water to create a vessel in which ships could move through the east and west. However with the adverse weather temperatures experienced in 2023 and unusual El Nino weather patterns, the canal is still yet to recover from the droughts experienced earlier in 2023 as water levels are currently 6 feet below normal levels.

Coming up on today’s program, The New York Times sues Microsoft and Open AI for claims that their articles have been used within their systems without proper permission and The Red Sea Is finally opening back up, what will this mean for oil prices going forward? New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for infringements to the copyright law and unlawful usage and conduct of their materials which could hinder users from subscribing to their platform. The NY Times has filed a complaint sharing that the AI platforms have actually given users free access and an alternative to access their materials. With this lawsuit taking place, the NY Times is not interested in seeking a specific amount of damages to the usage but instead estimated the usage to have cost them billions of dollars. The NY Times also wants Microsoft and OpenAI to destroy all chatbots that would have their materials imbedded in their systems. However with the filed lawsuit now, OpenAI were left feeling blindsided. Microsoft has also included ChatGPT in their Bing Search engine. So instead of going through the normal search as you would do with any search engine, you can select chat, which has the lay out and feel like communication with a customer service agent from the chat online. Research has lead us to believe that chatbots have actually eliminated the usage of media outlets by consumers, however the NY Times have managed to maintain their audience. The Red Sea and Suez Canal, which runs between Europe and Africa, had seen an almost complete stop in cargo ships after there were attacks by Yemen Houthi Militant Group. The United States had announced that they would be sending military troops in the Suez Canal to protect and manage the level of attacks by Yemen Houthi Militant Group, upon which Danish shippers Maersk, had announced they would start sending ships through the canal. With the announcement of US militants going in the Red Sea to protect vessels from Yemen Houthi attacks, and announcements by 2 major shipping companies to use the much favoured and shorter routes to transport cargo from Asia to Northern Europe, oil prices have actually declined on this news.

On today’s program we will look at the Christmas season. How has consumer spending been affected given all the events that took place this year? and the European Super League is back on the table. Will they finally get the green light to form that sought after new league? Its considered the most wonderful time of the year. The malls are decorated with Christmas lights and vibrant Christmas trees and even Santa Claus has his time where all the little children gather around and tell him there wishes for Christmas. Aside from that, it is normally one of the biggest seasons for retailers who go all out in their decorations and stock up on items sold, as history has proven that over time for this one period in time, consumers tend to spend more than average throughout the entire year. Given the recent onset of events that have been happening in the world since 2020, maybe traditions are changing. In the United States, spending is expected to be reduced for the Christmas period compared to previous years. Prices have still been relatively high for 2023, up about 19% since the pandemic started and so this has caused a great reduction in the holiday spending for Americans. Many of who believe that inflation is actually a bigger problem than unemployment, immigration and even crime. Consumers are expected to spend on average US$875 with about US$620 being spent on gifts and $255 being spent on seasonal items such as decorations, sweets or food. The Thanksgiving weekend on the other hand saw an increase of about 4 million shoppers from it’s previous year total 200.4 million consumers over the 5 day shopping fest. On to Jamaica and the Christmas season is actually approached differently. A popular news site Jamaica Information Service (JIS) has in fact created a guide for this Christmas season in which they titled “Christmas Spending Tips”. But just like the rest of the world, Christmas spending is expected to be reduced in the nation. 2 years ago there were talks about engaging the best of the best football clubs across Europe and forming an exclusive league that would have no relegation and no new entries. 12 of the best clubs across England, Spain and Italy were invited to join and be a part of this new and revolutionary vision that would change football as we know it today. This is no other than the European Super League. A new proposition was put forward by the ESL formation body, A22, created to assist and develop the league, shared that they will have a mid-week competition that will encompass 64 men football teams and 32 female teams. Research suggested that the EU’s top court shared that FIFA and UEFA abused their dominance to prevent clubs from joining a European Super League, though the formation may still not be approved as the court did rule on it specifically.

Coming up on today’s show The Fed has decided not to increase interest rates for the remainder of 2023, how has the markets responded to this? Argentina has devalued their pesos by over 50%, what impact will this have on the Argentine economy? and Citigroup is offering to pay staff a portion of their bonuses earlier than usual if they agree to voluntarily leave.

Coming up on today’s program, Moody’s has downgraded China’s debt rating amidst rising concerns with regards to their repayments. Italy has decided to pull out of the Belt and Road initiative in China and the United Kingdom has decided to change their visa issuance basis in an attempt to cut immigrants by over 100,000.

On today’s program, we will discuss the COP 28 climate summit and what’s on the agenda. We will also look at El Salvador 2 years after they made Bitcoin legal tender. How has this affected the country since it was given the green light? Lastly, Investment Mogul Charlie Monger has died earlier this week. How has this affected the investment landscape?

Today we will look into Binance former CEO pleading guilty for money laundering, how will this affect the crypto space going forward? OpenAI is set to reinstate their former CEO just a few days after firing him and also we will look at Amazon setting up their site to sell cars, would you purchase one off the online platform? Former founder and CEO of the largest crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to money laundering. CZ knowingly had broken anti-money laundering laws and Binance had admitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) has engaged in unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violation. As such, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, shared that Zhao had “willfully violated federal laws that guards against money laundering and terrorism financing transactions.” Garland was most upset not with the fact that Binance had failed to comply with the rules, but more so that they failed to comply with federal law but they acted like they were complying to these laws. Zhao had tweeted that he will be stepping down from Binance in a heartfelt message and since then Richard Teng, a long time executive will take over the crypto exchange. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been reinstated to his former position just 4 days after being sacked from the company. This was followed with president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, resigning in protest with the decision of the board and over 700 staff of Open AI sending in their resignation and agreeing to work with Microsoft where Sam Altman was heading to. The new era for Altman has already seen plans between himself and Microsoft putting in billions of dollars into fully developing the product and rolling it out to their clients globally. One thing is for certain and it is that Microsoft will be working very closely with OpenAI as they have already launched some AI into their products, with ChatGPT version 3.5 currently on the Bing search engine. Amazon has shared that they are planning to start selling cars online and have partnered with Hyundai, one of the leading car manufacturers out of South Korea. Though the deal as it stands still has to go through a local Hyundai dealer, the customer can set up financing and make the purchase on Amazon and then the car will be delivered to their address as stated. For now, Amazon is just facilitating the transaction and not outright eliminating the local dealers.