{"id":597579,"date":"2019-07-31T04:07:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T04:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/07\/31\/what-were-tracking-on-31-july-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-07-31T04:07:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T04:07:07","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-31-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/07\/31\/what-were-tracking-on-31-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 31 July 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are in the full swing of the summer news slowdown, folks.<\/b> But what little is happening these days is significant \u2014 not least of which is Fawry\u2019s in-the-works IPO.<\/p>\n

The subscription period for the private placement portion of the e-payments platform\u2019s initial public offering will wrap up later today. <\/b>The retail offering is also still underway, and will close on Monday. Fawry\u2019s shares will begin trading on the EGX on Thursday, 8 August. We have the latest in this morning\u2019s Speed Round.<\/p>\n

The two-day National Youth Conference concludes today at the new administrative capital. <\/b>We have a rundown on key moments from the conference in Last Night\u2019s Talk Shows, below.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> The two-day US Federal Reserve meeting at the US Federal Reserve to review interest rates finishes this afternoon.<\/b> At this point, putting your money on anything other than a 25 bps cut is a fool\u2019s errand, but there still may not be consensus among Fed board members, with at least two potential dissenters on the Federal Open Market Committee who could vote against easing<\/a>. Fed Chairman Jay Powell will be in full expectation-management mode when he faces the cameras for the post-meeting press conference, scheduled to take place<\/a> soon after the central bank releases its policy statement at 8:00 pm CLT tonight.<\/p>\n

Basically everyone is forecasting a 0.25% cut \u2014 except Morgan Stanley\u2019s chief economist.<\/b> \u201cWeak business investment will likely make the Fed more aggressive with rates.\u201d Chetan Ahya told CNBC yesterday (watch, runtime: 06:02<\/a>). \u201cIf the Fed wants to be preemptive, it needs to cut 50 bps.\u201d<\/p>\n

And we all know what the president wants:<\/b> America\u2019s Twitterer-in-chief took to social media yesterday to complain that the Fed will not lower rates enough. \u201cThe Fed has made all the wrong moves. A small rate cut is not enough,\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oil prices rose yesterday in anticipation of a cut:<\/b> Brent was up 0.51% to USD 65.05 bbl, while US crude (WTI) rose 0.47% to USD 58.32 bbl.<\/p>\n

But US and European stock markets were a sea of red:<\/b> You would expect stock markets to be buoyant in the run-up to the first Fed rate cut in a decade, but Trump\u2019s castigation of Beijing<\/a> on the eve of US-China trade talks and fears of a chaotic British exit from the EU<\/a> conspired to drag down the S&P 500, which fell 0.3% at session close. European bourses also witnessed a broad decline<\/a>, with Germany\u2019s benchmark Dax 30 closing more than 2% down.<\/p>\n

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Investors from Egypt are among a cohort eyeing up investments in South Sudan\u2019s oil, mineral, and agricultural industries<\/b>,Bloomberg reports<\/a>. FDI inflows to the country are expected to rise to USD 1 bn this fiscal year as it recovers from five years of civil war.<\/p>\n

The US\u2019 second Democratic presidential debate concluded the first of two evenings<\/b> around an hour before dispatch time. Vox<\/a> has declared Senator Elizabeth Warren the winner of the night, noting that she dove into divisive issues such as immigration policy. Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders seem to have \u201cteamed up\u201d against the more moderate candidates during the debate, highlighting an ideological divide among the party\u2019s candidates. The Guardian has a blow-by-blow<\/a> of the evening.<\/p>\n

Uber, Lyft announce job cuts as IPOs fail to meet expectations:<\/b> Ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft both made significant cuts to their operations this week in a bid to recoup losses after disappointing IPOs,the WSJ reports<\/a>. Uber cut a third of its marketing team \u2014 around 400 jobs \u2014 while Lyft is eliminating the role of chief operating officer, in a move that echoes an industry-wide trend also seen at Uber last month. Both companies experienced disappointing IPOs and large 1Q2019 losses.<\/p>\n

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In international miscellany:<\/p>\n