EZA News and Press, iShares MSCI South Africa Index Fund From 04/15/22

After a long weekend, Wall Street is ready to dive back into earnings season. With the ECB taking its time to wrap up bond-buying and start raising rates, it would take something quite substantial to rock the boat. It would appear gold isn’t going to extend its winning run ...

The S&P Global Sub-Saharan Africa PMI posted at 52.3 in March, remaining above the 50.0 neutral mark. The gap between output and orders was the largest seen for five months and reflected the trend seen throughout much of 2021 during the worst of the pandemic-led supply chain crisi...

As we head into the second quarter, it seems the list of economic concerns is growing rather than shrinking and yet equity markets find themselves in a very comfortable position. The rebound from the post-invasion lows has been impressive, to say the least, but whether it’s sus...

Investors appear remarkably calm at the moment given the level of uncertainty we’re facing this year, from inflation to interest rates and even Covid, when you consider China is still embracing lockdowns. Throw soaring commodity prices into the mix and there’s plenty of ...

The global economy is facing an incredible amount of uncertainty at the moment which is continuing to drive the volatility we’re seeing in financial markets. Whether it’s uncertainty around inflation, interest rates, commodity prices, Covid or Ukraine, the growth outlook...

EZA provides exposure to a basket of South African mid and large caps. The top ten holding account for ~57% of the portfolio which means EZA is concentrated in a few names which are likely to drive future returns. Given the bleak economic outlook, buying puts on EZA could be the b...

It’s been another volatile week in financial markets with events in and around Ukraine continuing to dominate. This in turn creates huge uncertainty around the global economic outlook, with soaring commodity prices a massive downside risk for growth and upside risk for inflatio...

SSA countries achieved substantial pledges of renewed financing at COP26, although these fall short of estimates of the total funding needed for loss and damage from, adaptation to, and mitigation of the effects of climate change. Regional development and multilateral financial instit...

It’s been another week of significant volatility in financial markets, one in which European indices edged closer to bear market territory, oil prices hit a 10-year high around $120, and safe-haven gold came close to $2,000. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the severe sancti...

Russia is a significant producer and exporter of energy commodities and critical food products such as wheat. While blocking Russia's war funding stream may be necessary, investors would benefit from realistically understanding the extensive inflationary impact of sanctions. An im...