Recession, Cryptos, Rwanda - Where are We Headed??
The fear of recession has been pulling for some time, Crypto exchanges have been closing shop, and what was so good in Rwanda last week?
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Happy Easter Holiday!
There has been a rising fear of recession across the globe, this has been brought about by the recent collapse of banks in the United States and Europe. While we have had a global drawback on recession for some time, many countries are beginning to have a light-beam on a looming financial crisis.
But, who could be hit most by a recession? Developing countries of course! This and much more will be leading this week’s World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings.
African countries top the list of countries in the red with Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, Tunisia and Zambia leading the Sub-Saharan Africa pack of countries on the line to be hit most, in the event of a global recession, mostly owing to these countries overweight debt, compared to their economies.
Other countries in this list include Sri-Lanka, Lebanon, Pakistan, Venezuela and El-Salvador which in 2021 accepted the use of Bitcoin as legal tender.
What in the Bitcoin is happening?
The Cryptocurrency space has been on a turmoil over the past two years, from Bankman Fried’s FTX, LocalBitcoin and now Paxful? Well, Paxful, one of the leading peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency marketplaces for emerging markets, announced its decision to shut down operations. Launched in 2015,
Paxful has been providing a platform for users to buy, sell, and trade various cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin. The platform has played a significant role in promoting cryptocurrency adoption, especially in emerging markets. Paxful's closure can be attributed to several factors, including regulatory pressures, market competition, and internal issues.
At the same time, Coinbase Global [COIN 0.00%↑ ] sent messages to some of its users, informing them their accounts will be limited, some accounts only being allowed to transfer their holdings, and not trade them on the Coinbase platform, Well, what in the Cryptocurrency is happening?
Coffee Break
Rwanda, one of East Africa’s smallest countries has been a continental darling, termed as the ‘‘favourite pet’’, the country elicit a lot of interest from both local and global partners.
Despite a dark background, Rwanda’s economy has grown tenfold over the past 10 years. Currently, Rwanda is building a 14-year Circular Economy Action Plan and Roadmap, and that could be one of the reasons why Kenya’s president William Ruto was in Rwanda last week; to benchmark, or to just take coffee in Kigali.
Rwanda boasts of infrastructural growth, and is currently building what is termed as to be Africa’s busiest Airport. While big brother Kenya, remains way ahead of Rwanda in economic growth, democracy, GDP and economic prospects; a good look at younger siblings at times could raise the silent thought into action.
Markets.
Major U.S benchmark indices were mostly lower over following a choppy U.S trading week, the decline was further characterised by a holiday-shortened week as most markets in other parts of the world remained closed in observance of the Good Friday holiday, while Passover started on Wednesday evening.
For the short trading week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average [DJIA 0.00%↑] was up 0.6% during the week to close Thursday at 33,485.29 basis points. The other benchmarks were however down, with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and the Nasdaq down 1.1% to close the week at 4,105.02 bps and 12,087.96 bps respectively.
While this week bring a lot with inflation data set to come in, market dynamics will still be focused on the US economy, with most analysts showing signs of weakness, and as more data confirms the downturn, the markets may become unstable.
Local Markets.
Overall market optimism on the Nairobi Securities Exchange turned positive during last week’s trading, with the benchmark all share of the NSE (NASI) gaining by 1.50 points or 1.33% to stand at 114.26. The NSE20 share was similarly up 23.60 points or 1.45% to settle at 1645.65 bps, while the NSE 25 share index also garnered 15.89 points or 0.54% to settle at 2981.80.
The bond market activity was down on the local markets, the treasury bill auction value date 5th April 2023 was oversubscribed by 134.8%, with KES 32.3 billion worth of bids received against the offered amount of KES 24.0 billion.
Despite this high performance, the interest rates did not fluctuate significantly, the 182-day rate decreased, the 91-day and 364-day rates saw only moderate growth in their per annum rates.
What Top Cowries are we collecting this week?
Tesla Inc [NASDAQ:TSLA] - Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported on Sunday that Tesla will build a factory in Shanghai to make the Megapack energy storage product. After a week of decline, how will Tesla stocks perform this week?
U.S Inflation Data - U.S. inflation data (CPI,PPI & CI) are due for release this week. After the banking crisis, this will ease or raise investor concerns on whether the market has correctly pegged the near-term trajectory for interest rates.
U.S 1Q23 Earnings Report - The Earnings season officially kicks in this week, we expect BlackRock, Citi Group, Wells Fargo & JP Morgan Chase & Co to release their financials at Pre-Market on Friday.
How about you, what stocks are you watching for the week? Let us know on Hisa App.
Disclaimer: The writer of this article owns SCOM 0.00 , HAFR , EQTY 0.72%↑ , NVDA -0.72%↓ & AAPL 2.08%↑ shares. This article does not constitute any investment recommendations. Investors and the general public are advised to do their own research before making any investment decision.