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- Market Munch 🍎 | 25 November 2022
Market Munch 🍎 | 25 November 2022
Wall Street closes the door on 2023, China's COVID problem spirals, and Spain spams taxes. 🔥
Aryaansh Rathore
November 24, 2022
Happy Friday, Munchers! 🙏
This week has been a looong one.
As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 59 seconds.
Yesterday, Wall Street forecasted a bumpy 2023, China outlined a world beyond zero-COVID, and Spain spammed taxes on businesses with fat pockets. 🔥
Let’s dive in.
What’s hot, what’s not?
Market Commentary
Asian stocks lifted higher after fears of rate hikes were put aside - this soothed markets.
Seems to be a classic case of no news is good news.
US markets were closed as Americans over the world consume their body weight in food. Happy Thanksgiving, folks! 🦃
Story Roundup
Every bank on the street is getting their bets in for 2023 - heaps of reports filled with overworked analysts' findings are gonna be all over your LinkedIn feed soon.
The general summary from these reports - everyone loves sad, beaten up bonds, but no one loves sad, beaten up stocks.
A recession also seems to be baked in - with 80% of the 'smart money' expecting one later next year.
But on the plus side - we've gone so low. Maybe the only way we can go is up. 🤷
COVID's crippling grasp is tightening on China's economy by the day.
Economic and social costs are mounting by the day, with workers rioting in factories, civilians ignoring lockdowns, and widespread fear across markets.
One of the biggest challenges is getting 1.3 billion people vaccinated.
About 1/3rd of the Chinese population is unvaxxed, and things are looking bleak.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence (who don't get a lot of stuff wrong), a reopening of China's economy could put almost 5.8 million people in the ICU.
Scary stuff. 😬
Oil companies with fat pockets are the best friends of cash strapped governments.
Spain is pushing ahead with it's plan to impose windfall taxes on energy companies and bankers.
These taxes are supposedly a way for the government to "lend a hand" to Spanish families that are crumbling with a spike in the cost-of-living.
They'll raise about $3bn from big banks via a 5% tax on income, and $4bn from energy companies with a 1.2% tax on revenue.
Spicy. 🌶️
Saudi Aramco's subsidiary has gotten the regulatory nod to go ahead with an IPO.
It's a refinery business called Base Oil - and they have operations across Jeddah and Yanbu.
They will sell 50 million shares - equal to 29.7% of the company - to raise just north of a billion dollars.
The oil-rich MENA region has been a public offering hotspot as foreign funds enter local markets to shield themselves from poor returns elsewhere.
Boom. 💥
Ukraine's President is standing straight in the face of Russia's new strategy to destroy all infrastructure possible.
He said that there is no "lasting resolution until Russia withdraws from all the territories it's occupying".
On Wednesday, Russia launched about 70 missiles targeting energy companies and electricity grids across Ukraine.
That left ~80% of the country in the dark, and without water.
Plunged into darkness. 😔
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Hope you enjoyed this issue of the Market Munch. If you've got any feedback - good or bad (😏) you can hit reply to this email. Thanks a ton for reading!
Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏
Aryaansh