{"id":599515,"date":"2019-01-02T04:14:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T04:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/01\/02\/what-were-tracking-on-02-january-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-01-02T04:14:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T04:14:27","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-02-january-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/01\/02\/what-were-tracking-on-02-january-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 02 January 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year, friends, and welcome to 2019. <\/b>We\u2019re delighted to be back in your inboxes this morning after our end-of-year publication break the first half of this week.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect a rush of news before the week of 13 January. <\/b>It\u2019s prime vacation time this week and well into next ahead of Coptic Christmas on Monday, 7 January.<\/p>\n

That said: It\u2019s business as usual at the House of Representatives<\/b> with the exception of a day off on 7 January, so you can expect news on the legislative and regulatory front.<\/p>\n

Custom duties on fully assembled cars imported from the European Union fell to 0% yesterday<\/b> under a trade agreement<\/a> with the European Union. Domestic assemblers had been angling for protection against the move, arguing that what they see as unfair competition from EU, Turkish and Moroccan vehicles endangers assembly jobs here.<\/p>\n

Egypt assumes the rotating presidency of the African Union <\/b>this year. <\/p>\n

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Where did the EGX end 2018? <\/b>The benchmark index was down 13.2% for the year, sapped largely by the ravages of the Emerging Markets Zombie Apocalypse that was the story of 2018 on the equities front.<\/p>\n

We were not the worst-performing regional market. <\/b>The Dubai Financial Market was down more than 26%, while the Muscat Securities Market wrapped 2018 off 15%. Qatar was the region\u2019s top gainer in 2018, rising more than 20% as the blockade became the new normal there. Saudi Arabia, the region\u2019s largest market, was up nearly 7% for the year.<\/p>\n

US indexes closed 2018 with their steepest annual declines since the global financial crisis<\/b>, the Wall Street Journal<\/a> notes.<\/p>\n

Big gainers in the US of A last year: Merck<\/b> (+36%) led the Dow while chipmaker AMD<\/b> (+80%) topped the S&P 500.<\/p>\n

Big losers in the US last year: Goldman Sachs<\/b> led the Dow down as its shares shed more than a third of their value (General Electric<\/b> would have claimed that honor had it not been kicked out of the index at mid-year, the Financial Times notes<\/a>), while Coty<\/b> shed more than 60% on the S&P.<\/p>\n

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So what does 2019 hold for companies and investors alike? <\/b>Some of the best prognosticating we\u2019ve read in the past few days:<\/p>\n