Sign in
Chinese demand pushes gold to record highs: China extended its lead over India as the world’s biggest buyer of gold bars, coins, and jewelry. Chinese demand for gold and bar coin investments surged 27% over the past year and demand for gold jewelry rose 10% in the same period. Demand from China pushed the precious metal to a record-breaking USD 2.4k an ounce this year, Bloomberg reports.
The view from the trading floor: Gold (Comex) is up around 20% YTD and was trading at just over USD 2.4k last night in after hours trading.
(** Tap or click the headline on this section to read it with all of the links on our website.)
ALSO worth knowing about on this fine spring morning:
- BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has stepped up security for CEO Larry Fink (a frequent visitor to Saudi) amid an “anti-woke backlash.” (Financial Times)
- The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is under fire from “City bosses who fear it will drive businesses out of UK” if it goes ahead with a plan to name-and-shame companies under investigation. (Financial Times)
- Tesla is again under the microscope, this time in a Bloomberg story that writes “The stock is sliding, a cheaper electric car is deprioritized and the CEO is riling the workforce with his biggest layoffs yet.”
THE MARKETS THIS MORNING-
Asian markets are rebounding from Friday’s sell-off, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading the gainers, up nearly 2.3% in early trading. That’s raising hope that positive sentiment (or perhaps a bit of wishful thinking?) could see the Nasdaq (down 5.5% last week) and S&P (down >3% last week) snap their six-day losing streaks.
In context: The two big US benchmarks were dragged down last week by a tech selloff.
What to watch for this week: 1Q 2024 results announcements from Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft.
Right now: US and European equities futures were up slightly in overnight trading.
|
TASI |
12,518 |
+0.1% (YTD: +4.6%) |
|
|
MSCI Tadawul 30 |
1,571 |
-0.3% (YTD: +1.2%) |
|
|
NomuC |
26,940 |
+0.9% (YTD: +9.8%) |
|
|
USD : SAR (SAMA) |
3.75 Sell |
3.75 Buy |
|
|
Interest rates |
6% repo |
5.5% reverse repo |
|
|
EGX30 |
28,623 |
+1% (YTD:+15.0%) |
|
|
ADX |
9,126 |
-0.6% (YTD: -4.7%) |
|
|
DFM |
4,175 |
-0.8% (YTD: +2.8%) |
|
|
S&P 500 |
4,967 |
-0.9% (YTD: +4.1%) |
|
|
FTSE 100 |
4,918.1 |
-0.4% (YTD: +8.7%) |
|
|
Euro Stoxx 50 |
7,896 |
+0.2% (YTD: +2.1%) |
|
|
Brent crude |
USD 87.12 |
-0.2% |
|
|
Natural gas (Nymex) |
USD 1.77 |
+1.1% |
|
|
Gold |
USD 2,401 |
-0.5% |
|
|
BTC |
64,795.8 |
-0.3% (YTD: +65.9%) |
THE CLOSING BELL: TADAWUL-
The TASI rose 0.1% yesterday on turnover of SAR 6.4 bn. The index is up 4.6% YTD.
In the green: BATIC (+9.96%), Al Rajhi Takaful (+9.96%) and Gulf General (+9.9%).
In the red: SPM (-3.4%), Alyamamah Steel (-2.8%) and Jarir (-2.8%).
THE CLOSING BELL: NOMU-
The NomuC rose 0.9% yesterdayon turnover of SAR 36.5 mn. The index is up 9.8% YTD.
In the green: Azm (+11.6%), United Mining (+8.3%) and Raoom (+6.4%).
In the red: NBM (-6.8%), Rawasi (-5.6%) and Al Qemam (-5.1%)
CORPORATE ACTIONS-
Shareholders of Tadawul-listed Tasnee have approved the transfer of SAR 905.3 mn from its statutory reserve to retained earnings, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul yesterday. They also approved a SAR 3.5 mn remuneration to board members for FY 2023.
