{"id":598493,"date":"2019-05-27T03:26:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T03:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/05\/27\/what-were-tracking-on-27-may-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-05-27T03:26:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T03:26:06","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-27-may-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/05\/27\/what-were-tracking-on-27-may-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 27 May 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, friends, and welcome to the slowest news day in forever. <\/b>It\u2019s the end-of-Ramadan slowdown here in Egypt, running headlong into Memorial Day weekend in the United States and the late-May bank holiday in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not holding our collective breath, but don\u2019t discount the odds of a late-week news pickup <\/b>as folks look to finish things up prior to next week\u2019s Eid El Fitr holiday.And as journalists everywhere know, the best time to take out the trash <\/b>(or release, but minimize the impact of, bad news) is late on the day before a national holiday, so keep an eye on your trading screens and the news tickers next week.<\/p>\n

So, when is Eid? <\/b>The collective aspirations (delusions?) of the masses are calling Ramadan at 29 days this year, meaning the Eid would start next Monday night, giving us a five-day weekend. Otherwise, the last day of the Holy Month will be Tuesday.<\/p>\n

UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox <\/b>will be in town<\/b><\/a> today<\/b> and tomorrow for meetings with senior administration officials on boosting trade and investments.<\/p>\n

Keep your eyes on:<\/b><\/p>\n

AmCham\u2019s annual general meeting and iftar tomorrow.<\/b> Members can register for the event here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

30 Saudi stocks will join the MSCI Emerging Markets Index<\/b> at the end of tomorrow\u2019s trading session.<\/p>\n

<\/a> The locusts are still heading our way. <\/b>Readers may remember that we reported back in February the UN Food and Agriculture Organization\u2019s warning that a swarm of locusts was headed toward Egypt<\/a>. Well, they\u2019re here, with local officials in Luxor and Aswan governorates fighting \u201cthe advance of locust swarms \u2026 coming from Sudan [that] appeared on Friday night in the southern border region,\u201d Ahram Online<\/a> reports. The FAO\u2019s Locust Watch site<\/a> has yet to be updated with the new.<\/p>\n

Why it\u2019s a big deal: <\/b>A square-kilometer swarm of 40 mn locusts can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people, 20 camels, and six elephants in one day.<\/p>\n

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The international story of the morning: Populists failed in their assault on the European Parliament elections<\/b> that wrapped yesterday. Heavy turnout favored the Greens and Liberals and gains by right-wing parties were moderate. Axios has a solid 6 key takeaways from the critical European elections<\/a>. See also coverage from Politico<\/a>, Reuters<\/a>, Financial Times<\/a> and Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Saudi Arabia upgrade to emerging market status doesn\u2019t have global investors salivating:<\/b> MSCI will include Saudi stocks in its benchmark EM index at the end of tomorrow\u2019s trading session, and while passive inflows are expected to flood the Tadawul, active investors are taking a more critical look at the Saudi market, Bloomberg writes<\/a>. Analysts think Saudi companies are overvalued in a market in which earnings expectations have continuously fallen since the start of the year. And remember this warning: FIS Group\u2019s Adam Choppin suggested<\/a> earlier this year that the pre-inclusion bump would fade as traders looked to sell and lock-in gains after with the arrival of passive inflows.<\/p>\n

The Bloomberg Opinion writer who got the world talking about a \u201cDigital Iron Curtain\u201d last week is back<\/b>, arguing fairly cogently that the Tech Cold War will force the world to choose sides<\/a>. Stop us if this doesn\u2019t resonate readers based in Egypt or other emerging markets: \u201cUS technology still leads the world \u2026 but China has shown a willingness to engage and help developing nations in ways the US once did. \u2026 It\u2019s not just high-tech networks. Numerous developing nations want high-speed rail lines, efficient ports and airports, and energy-saving, low-pollutant electric vehicles. Each of these could be provided by America or its allies. Japan, Europe and Canada have the technology and skill to help. But in addition to being capable of offering those items, China has the political and fiscal capital to do so. The will already exists in the form of its Belt and Road Initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a> Speaking of China: A Chinese video downloader has been hijacking phones in Egypt and 14 other countries:<\/b> Actis-backed Upstream<\/a>\u2019s security platform Secure-D has found that \u201chidden software\u201d in Android app VidMate \u201chijacks mobile devices, eats up data, incurs unwanted charges, and collects personal user info,\u201d a company document seen by Enterprise shows. The app, which has been downloaded by an estimated 500 mn people, has cost users around USD 170 mn in unwanted charges. Egypt users have suffered the highest concentration of \u201csuspicious activity\u201d<\/b> flagged by Secure-D, with 43 mn transactions and 1.1 mn affected users. BuzzFeed<\/a> also has the story, minus the Egypt angle.<\/p>\n

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What We\u2019re Tracking Today, the Ramadan edition:<\/b><\/p>\n

A pre-iftar reading list to kill time<\/b> between your post-workout shower and the breaking of the fast:<\/p>\n