Fed tightens again amid banking crisis: The Federal Reserve made a second consecutive 25-bps interest rate hike at its meeting on Wednesday — but hinted that it could soon bring a halt to the tightening cycle as it tried to balance between fighting inflation and maintaining financial stability amid a global banking crisis. The increase — which is small compared to the string of jumbo increases the central bank made last year — pushed the target range of the federal funds rate to 4.75-5%, its highest level since September 2007.

The US banking system is “sound and resilient,” the Fed said in its statement, noting that the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse could lead to tighter economic conditions and put a damper on inflation.

The Fed wasn’t the only major central bank to hike rates last week: The Bank of England raised rates by 25 bps to 4.25% on Thursday after data showed an unexpected rise in UK inflation to 10.4% in February.

US banks aren’t the biggest source of concern right now: Deutsche Bank saw its share price decline as much as 14.5% during trading on Friday as investors fretted that it could be the next domino to fall amid global turmoil in the banking sector. Shares in the “too big to fail” German lender pared some of their losses to close 8.5% down, while the cost of insuring against a default jumped to a four-year high. The plunge occurred amid a broad sell-off among European lenders: UBS — which last weekend agreed to a last-ditch takeover of teetering Credit Suisse — closed 3.6% in the red, while French giant BNP Paribas lost 5.3%.

EGX30

15,625

+2.4% (YTD: +7.0%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 30.84

Sell 30.96

USD at CIB

Buy 30.85

Sell 30.95

Interest rates CBE

16.25% deposit

17.25% lending

Tadawul

10,446

+0.9% (YTD: -0.3%)

ADX

9,503

-0.5% (YTD: -6.9%)

DFM

3,349

-0.4% (YTD: +0.4%)

S&P 500

3,971

+0.6% (YTD: +3.4%)

FTSE 100

7,405

-1.3% (YTD: -0.6%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,131

-1.8% (YTD: +8.9%)

Brent crude

USD 74.99

-1.2%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 2.22

+2.9%

Gold

USD 2,001.70

-0.6%

BTC

USD 27,420

+0.1% (YTD: +66.2%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 2.4% at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 1.4 bn (31% below the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 7.0% YTD.

In the green: Egypt Kuwait Holding (+10.0%), Ezz Steel (+7.2%) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+6.9%).

In the red: EFG Hermes (-2.4%), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (-1.3%) and CIRA (-0.9%).

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