Money Round Up

Neom Seeks Funds to Build Futuristic City in Saudi Arabia

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.

McDonalds Buys Back 225 Franchises from Their Israeli Counterpart

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.

BlackRock Seeks to Invest in the Kenyan Stock Market

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

Donald Trump Takes Media Company Public

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.

Apple is Sued by the US Department of Justice

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