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.