THIS EVENING: We have a timeline for the upcoming presidential election

Good afternoon, friends. It’s shaping up to be one of those days that aren’t super busy yet, but seem to be gearing up to pick up steam towards the end of the day.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

We’re heading to the polls this year: The presidential election will kick off on 1 December, with Egyptians residing abroad set to vote between 1-3 December, while those residing inside Egypt will vote from 10-12 December, the National Elections Authority head Walid Hamza said in a presser that kicked off just minutes before we hit send on this afternoon’s edition. In the event of a tied vote, the runoff will take place from 5-7 January, 2024 for Egyptians residing abroad and from 8-10 January for those voting inside Egypt. The authority will open the door for presidential hopefuls to announce their nominations from 5-14 October. The preliminary list of candidates will be announced on 16 October, with the final list set to be announced on 9 November, Hamza said.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There are two big stories piquing interest in the international business press this afternoon:

• #1- Amazon’s intention to invest USD 4bn in Anthropic. The move includes acquiring a minority interest stake in the AI company that is a rival to OpenAI, the creators behind ChatGPT. The step was in an attempt to meet competitors as Microsoft has already signed on OpenAI. (CNBC | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal)
• #2- Oil prices stopped at USD 90 per barrel in a move that comes after Russia placed a ban on diesel and gasoline exports that sent prices soaring making hedge funds eager for a slice of the black gold pie. (Bloomberg)

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Egypt is being put on review for potential removal from JPMorgan’s widely-tracked suite of emerging-market sovereign bond indexes.
• The EGX yesterday began allowinginvestors to trade treasury bills in the secondary market in a bid to boost trading.
• Egypt’s market for securitized bond issuances continues to be red-hot, with three fresh issuances worth more than EGP 2.8 bn closing in recent days.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury is expected to peak at 37°C during the day and drop to a cooler 27°C in the evening, according to our favorite weather app.