It’s a mixed bag this morning on Planet Finance. No single story has captured the imagination of the global business press, but here are a handful worth knowing about:

#1- The best performers from the pandemic era? Their stock prices are tanking. Shares in Tesla, Zoom, Byd, Pinterest, Pinterest and others who boomed during the early days of covid-19 are now struggling, according to Financial Times reporting based on data from Bloomberg and S&P Global.

The 50 shares that performed the best in 2020 have lost about a third of their value since the start of 2021, shedding the equivalent of about USD 1.5 tn in market cap.

#2- Tim Cook won’t be at Apple forever. Is John Ternus emerging as his successor? That’s the claim from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a longtime Apple watcher who was the only pundit we can think of who correctly said the company would use the M4 chip in the iPad Pros it announced earlier this week. The Apple hardware engineering boss is well-liked and respected and is a more likely candidate even than software Craig Federighi.

#3- Turkish central bankers hope that a projected 36% inflation rate by year’s end will attract foreign interest in its local currency debt. Pundits think this month will see inflation there peak at about 70%, suggesting that real interest rates are coming in at something around -20%. (Bloomberg)

#4- Jitters about the global real estate market are still in the spotlight, with the FinancialTimes taking note of rents falling in Hong Kong amid softening demand for both corporate and residential real estate. And high-profile US real estate investor Barry Sternlicht warns that he expects as much as one small regional US bank to fail every week as property owners struggle with high interest rates, inflation, and vacant properties, writes Fortune.

AND speaking of interest rates: Sweden cut rates for the first time in eight years “as European monetary policymakers diverge from the US to support their economies even if it comes at the expense of their currencies.”

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are truly mixed this morning, with the ASX 200 and Kospi each down less than 1% and the Nikkei, Hang Seng, and Shanghai Composite all up around 0.2% — with no obvious driver in sight backing this morning’s performance.

US equities futures were flat overnight after the Dow turned in its sixth straight day of gains, while European stock futures point to a weak (if positive) open for markets across the continent.

TASI

12,460

+0.8% (YTD: +4.1%)

MSCI Tadawul 30

1,557

+0.6% (YTD: +0.4%)

NomuC

26,886

+0.5% (YTD: +9.6%)

USD : SAR (SAMA)

3.75 Sell

3.75 Buy

Interest rates

6.5% repo

5.5% reverse repo

EGX30

25,988

-1.7% (YTD: +4.4%)

ADX

9,177

+1.2% (YTD: -4.2%)

DFM

4,193

+0.9% (YTD: +3.3%)

S&P 500

5,188

0.0% (YTD: +8.8%)

FTSE 100

8,354

+0.5% (YTD: +8.2%)

Euro Stoxx 50

5,038

+0.4% (YTD: +11.6%)

Brent crude

83.48

+0.4%

Natural gas (Nymex)

2.18

-1.2%

Gold

2,322.4

-0.1%

BTC

USD 61,518.20

-2.3% (YTD: +45.5%)

THE CLOSING BELL: TADAWUL-

The TASI rose 0.8% yesterday on turnover of SAR 8.1 bn. The index is up +4.1% YTD.

In the green: Acwa Power (+9.7%), Alkhaleej Trng (+8.9%) and Medgulf (+8.1%).

In the red: Nahdi (-2.5%), Tawuniya (-2.4%) and Jabal Omar (-2.3%).

THE CLOSING BELL: NOMU-

The NomuC rose 0.5% yesterday on turnover of SAR 38.7 mn. The index is up 9.6% YTD.

In the green: Academy of Learning (+7.4%), Alhasoob (+7%) and Pan Gulf (+6.2%).

In the red: Mayar (-5.8%), Mulkia (-4.2%) and AlMohafaza for Education (-3.3%)

CORPORATE ACTIONS-

Saudi Telecom’s board of directors approved a dividend payout of SAR 1.99 bn at SAR 0.4 per share for 1Q 2024, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul. Dividends will be distributed on Monday, 10 June.

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