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Moody’s Downgrades South Africa to Junk
Moody’s Investors Service issued its junk status rating after close of trade on Friday 27th March, stripping South Africa (“SA”) of its last remaining investment-grade rating. SA’s international credit rating is now below investment grade by all three credit rating agencies, namely Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor’s. The move was expected in the face…
Read MoreWeek in Review: Lockdown
Quarantines have now been imposed in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and South Africa, among others. Italians have now been quarantined for more than two weeks – and the pandemic’s surge in the country finally appears to be slowing. To date the most new cases Italy has seen in a single day…
Read MoreCarrick Wealth Launches International Property Service
Carrick Wealth, Southern Africa’s leading wealth and investment advisory, is proud to announce the launch of its brand-new business division, Carrick Property, together with its own dedicated website. This development comes in response to an identified need in the market for the provision of independent professional services for those wishing to diversify their investment portfolios…
Read MoreWeek in Review: Central Banks Take Coordinated Action
Financial markets endured another week of extreme volatility as the number of coronavirus cases globally continues to rise. The social-economic trade-off of social distancing adopted by most countries across the globe will significantly impact global economic growth and employment in the first half of this year. To counteract this, major central banks and governments around…
Read MoreWeek in Review: Virus Emergency
Global equity markets finished sharply lower over the week after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) a global pandemic. The declines pushed the major indexes well into bear market territory with the onset being the fastest in history and the Dow suffering its worst daily decline since 1987. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX)…
Read MoreUK Chancellor Sunak’s two budgets-in-one a sign of the times
For those among us with ties to Britain, the UK’s first post-Brexit Budget this week was not only an important one after the turmoil of last year – it also unambiguously reminded us of the new challenging times we are living in. With the global coronavirus pandemic having replaced Brexit as the major turmoil factor…
Read MoreWeek in Review: Central Banks Respond to the Coronavirus Outbreak
Major stock market indexes ended the week mixed as extraordinary volatility driven by COVID-19 fears continues. Possible policy responses from the U.S. and other governments to the COVID-19 outbreak took centre stage this week. G-7 finance ministers and central-bank governors met on Tuesday, pledging to use “all appropriate policy tools” to safeguard the global economy…
Read MoreWeek in Review: Coronavirus Sparks Market Correction
Coronavirus panic has sent world equity markets into correction (a correction is a 10 percent drop in stocks from their most recent peak) territory. While the rate of reported cases in China slowed and Chinese companies that were shuttered in February started to reopen, the headlines that the virus is spreading at an increased rate…
Read MoreCoronavirus – Update
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that was first reported in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019 is, and we won’t know until more data becomes available. What we do know is that the probability of dying if infected by the virus is significantly higher for vulnerable members of the…
Read More#Budget2020: Budget Highlights
The 2020 South African Budget delivered by Treasury yesterday is focussed on doing the right things: Directly addressing the elevated civil service wage bill by cutting it, rather than increasing taxes. Rebalancing expenditure towards capital from consumption; and Being mindful of negatively impacting economic growth amid its fiscal consolidation efforts. Budget Framework The main…
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