Today’s Trading Playbook
KEY THEMES
U.S. equities closed higher on Monday, as investors cheered up U.S. President Joe Biden's remarks that lockdowns in response to Omicron are off the table for now. However, U.S. futures indices, along with Asian shares, were taking losses in early Tuesday’s trading. Furthermore, oil prices retreated notably, following strong earlier gains on Monday, with Brent oil prices now flirting with the USD70/bbl price level. Such a change in the risk mode took place post an urgent G7 Health Ministers meeting, as well as statement from a drug maker’s CEO citing that vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as they have been against the Delta variant. We mentioned yesterday that volatility in global markets is to be expected, as investors around the globe slowly get a grasp of the expected impact from the new variant.
Here at home, both indices ended on a mixed note amid thin trading activities, with the EGX 70 EWI bouncing back strongly, gaining 2%, compared EGX 30 which edged lower by 0.58%, driven mainly by Eastern Company’s [EAST] 10% fall on going ex-dividend. Given the market performance since 2020, it makes sense to see the EGX 30 feeling more pain from any shake-up in global markets than the EGX 70 EWI. Stepping into the last month of 2021, this could mean witnessing further performance divergence between the two indices.
Now, on to the top news and analysis for the day.