{"id":568284,"date":"2020-12-24T04:06:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T04:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/12\/24\/what-were-tracking-on-24-december-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-12-24T04:06:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T04:06:56","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-24-december-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2020\/12\/24\/what-were-tracking-on-24-december-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 24 December 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, everyone, and a very Merry Christmas to all those who are observing<\/strong> tomorrow. <\/strong>We made it through another week together \u2014 and have a pleasantly quiet issue for you this Christmas Eve morning.<\/p>\n

Last orders on the NYSE and Nasdaq will be at 1pm Eastern today<\/strong> while the closing bell on the London Stock Exchange is at 12:30pm London time. Most Western markets are closed tomorrow in observance of Christmas day.<\/p>\n

Next week could be a four-day workweek here in Egypt. <\/strong>Banks with January-December fiscal years are typically off on 1 January to close their years, meaning the EGX is off, too. Our hunch is that we may get Thursday, 31 December off instead \u2014 look for an announcement next week.<\/p>\n

Our next statutory holiday here in Omm El Donia: <\/strong>Thursday, 7 January 2020 in observance of Coptic Christmas. Then 25 January and the long, slow vacationless trudge to 25 April for Sinai Liberation day, which will provide a nice mid-Ramadan break.<\/p>\n

** We\u2019re taking our traditional publication holiday next week. <\/strong>We\u2019ll be back on Sunday morning to give you the rundown on today\u2019s Central Bank of Egypt rate decision and will then be off Monday-Thursday.<\/p>\n

Christmas may be canceled pretty much everywhere, but that just means you have all the<\/strong> more time for movies, TV shows, and podcasts.<\/strong> The Wall Street Journal<\/a> has a rundown of the best content to watch and listen to this holiday season as much of the world hunkers down for a second wave of covid-19.<\/p>\n

Need more options?<\/strong> The Gray Lady<\/a>, the Financial Times<\/a>, NPR<\/a>, and even Oprah Magazine<\/a> have end-of-year reading lists with a handful of options to beef up your TBR pile as we slide into the holiday season. For the hardcore biz nerds out there, Fortune has a rundown of the best business documentaries, movies, and TV shows<\/a><\/strong> to stream during your time off, while the Financial Times puts the Pixar cartoon Soul and Wonder Woman 1984 on your list of six films to watch this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, please consider this your annual, statutorily required reminder that <\/strong>Die Hard<\/a><\/strong> and <\/strong>Trading Places<\/a><\/strong> are the ultimate Christmas movies. <\/strong>No dissent shall be brooked on this point \u2014 even the Resident Thirteen Year Old agrees. Want more Trading Places? Planet Money did a whole podcast on the film\u2019s key trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tired of all this looking-back stuff?<\/strong> The NYT has a sneak peak at the books coming out in<\/a><\/a>\u201821.<\/a><\/p>\n

We forgot about Festivus yesterday. <\/strong>Grievances will (retroactively) be aired today. New to the Festivus for the Rest of Us? This poster has the rundown for the uninitiated.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cooking more your thing?<\/strong> Can\u2019t stand another turkey recipe this weekend? The NYT Cooking app\u2019s 20 most popular recipes of 2020<\/a> is a great starting place.<\/p>\n

Need a pick-me-up this morning? <\/strong>Go read The best advice our elders ever gave us<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal. You can thank us later.<\/p>\n

SIGN OF THE TIMES- Private equity types are toasting a 2020 well done. <\/strong>Private equity firms capitalized cheap debt and the global turmoil unleashed by covid-19 capitalizing to push the total value of PE transactions to the highest figure worldwide since the global financial crisis, the Financial Times<\/a> reports. PE firms announced some 8k transactions (the highest number since records began in 1980) worth some USD 559 bn worldwide (up nearly 20% from last year).<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s interest rate day: <\/strong>The Central Bank of Egypt meets today for its final monetary policy meeting of the year. All 10 analysts and economists we spoke to earlier this week<\/a> expect rates to be left on hold. The CBE has cut rates by 400 bps so far this year, leaving the overnight rate at 8.25% and the lending rate at 9.25%.<\/p>\n

Trade talks between Egypt and the US that were supposed to take place this<\/strong> month have been delayed to 2021 due to the pandemic<\/strong>, a US embassy spokesman told Enterprise yesterday. Negotiators from both countries were due to sit down to discuss moving toward the Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFA)<\/a> \u2014 which could lead to trade liberalization with the US if Egypt relaxes non-tariff barriers and tackles several other issues<\/a>. \u201cThe United States remains closely engaged with its Egyptian partners on ways to increase bilateral trade and investment flows, and looks forward to resuming TIFA discussions,\u201d the embassy said.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re one week out from these deadlines:<\/strong><\/p>\n