{"id":629453,"date":"2018-05-31T04:09:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T04:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2018\/05\/31\/what-were-tracking-on-31-may-2018\/"},"modified":"2018-05-31T04:09:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T04:09:28","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-31-may-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2018\/05\/31\/what-were-tracking-on-31-may-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 31 May 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are nearly half-way through the month of Ramadan. <\/strong>Just sayin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo today <\/strong>to discuss the latest developments in Palestine, Al Shorouk reports<\/a>. Egypt has been trying to broker<\/a> a ceasefire in the latest flare-up between Israel and Gaza by urging Hamas to stop attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n

Afreximbank is hosting today a conference on how to grow trade between Egypt and the rest of Africa.<\/strong> The event is a precursor to the Afreximbank-backed Intra-African Trade Fair<\/a>, set to run in Cairo from 11-18 December. More information on today\u2019s conference is on the event\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a> Is the lack of interest in finance careers among twentysomethings just an \u201cEgyptian thing\u201d? <\/strong>If you\u2019re like us, you spend a considerable amount of time wondering why your friends \/ siblings \/ kids don\u2019t share your interest in a career in finance. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Egyptians seeking non-government employment looked to finance (or, secondarily, to multinationals of any flavour) as the \u2018hot\u2019 career path. Today, nearly everyone we know in the industry has complained to us that investment banking, brokerage, asset management, research and PE jobs are going unfilled. At a time when the economy is starting to boom, investment banking jobs are of little interest to really bright people in their early-to-mid 20s<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are they doing instead?<\/strong> Based on dozens of conversations in recent months, the hot paths today for recent grads are: Going to startups in the hope of picking up skills they think will help them start their own businesses. Seeking employment (any kind of employment) abroad. Briefly touching down in the workforce after uni before rocketing off to grad school \u2014 in a non-business, non-finance field. Gigs in civil society are are also increasingly cool, and STEM graduates (today\u2019s equivalent of the handassa grads of the 1990s and early 2000s who once flocked to finance) are being hoovered up by Sweden, France and Germany, all of which have built one-way talent pipelines into Egypt.<\/p>\n

Guess what? Twentysomethings in Europe are very interested in careers in finance<\/strong>, the Financial Times reports<\/a>, noting that \u201cabout 110,000 students applied for Deutsche Bank\u2019s graduate scheme this year in the most striking example of millennials\u2019 appetite for careers at even the most troubled banks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember how we said 2018 would be about volatility? <\/strong>After a global freakout on Tuesday that saw a broad selloff from Asia to Wall Street that hammered bank shares in particular, US stocks rallied yesterday. The S&P 500 erased its Tuesday losses on \u201csigns of easing political turmoil in Italy and as a surge in oil prices boosted energy stocks,\u201d Reuters reports<\/a>. Here at home, the EGX is now up 11.6% year-to-date. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the pond: US regulators have begun a major easing of the Volcker rule.<\/strong> The change will make it easier for banks to engage in market making and, at the same time, lower compliance requirements for traders. The rule was originally created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank act to \u201cban lenders that accept U.S. taxpayer-insured deposits from engaging in proprietary trading or investing in investment vehicles such as hedge funds or private equity funds,\u201d Reuters<\/a> reports, noting that financial outfits from Europe to Asia will benefit from yesterday\u2019s changes. The Financial Times<\/a> has more, as does the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, which emphasizes that the change would lower compliance requirements for traders while giving them more freedom to buy and sell securities.<\/p>\n

If your business is even partly influenced by trends on the internet, we have your must-read for the weekend: Mary Meeker\u2019s annual internet trends report is out.<\/strong> The 294-page slide deck, presented this year at the Recode\u2019s Code 2018 conference<\/a>, is the ultimate authority on the state of affairs on the interwebs. Among her nuggets out overnight:<\/p>\n