Dear followers everywhere, welcome to a new global tour of the financial markets, business, companies, energy, and everything new around the world today, Sunday, November 17, 2024… coming to you from Banker, so stay with us.
Starting with the gold markets, where hedge funds’ bets on the rise of the yellow metal declined to their lowest level in more than 3 months after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, which reduced demand for the precious metal as a safe haven.
US government data showed that hedge funds and other large speculators reduced their net buying positions by 11% to about 197,000 contracts by November 12, the lowest level in 14 weeks.
Next news from China: The valuation of ByteDance, which owns the Tik Tok application, has risen to a historic value, becoming the highest for a Chinese technology company.
ByteDance estimated its value at about $300 billion, one of the highest valuations ever for a Chinese technology company, even as it struggles to maintain the presence of its TikTok app in the United States.
This evaluation comes at a time when the company is trying to support its investments by offering to buy back its shares at a price of up to $180 per share, which represents an increase of about 13% from the previous offer.
From China to the Arabian Gulf and the signing of a Saudi-Thai investment agreement to establish the largest tire factory in the Middle East
The President of the Black Arrow Company for the Saudi Tire Manufacturing Company, Lieutenant General Abdullah Al-Wahaibi, signed an agreement with the President of the Thai Golden Star Rubber Company for the Natural Rubber Manufacturing Company, Amer Dhofar, to supply the largest Saudi tire manufacturing factory in the region with the natural rubber needed to produce car tires in the Kingdom.
This agreement supports the establishment of the largest tire factory in the Middle East, which will be located in the city of Yanbu under the umbrella of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, at an estimated cost of about $470 million and a production capacity starting from 4 million tires annually for small car tires, reaching 6 million tires annually in the advanced stages, which will include the production of truck tires. And buses.
We are still in the Arabian Gulf, where the market value of shares listed on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges, combined, has risen above one trillion dollars for the first time, thanks to the significant growth in the market value of the International Holding Company (IHC) and new public offerings, according to what Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
According to the World Economic Agency, the UAE stock exchanges combined (Abu Dhabi and Dubai markets) have become larger than the stock markets in Milan or Madrid, and they are also larger than most emerging markets, with the exception of a few such as India and China.
The last news in our global tour from the European Union, which decided to fine “Meta” 798 million euros for dominating classified ads.
The European Union justified the recent sanctions due to Meta linking the “Facebook Marketplace” service to its comprehensive social media platform, which is the first penalty of its kind for the giant American technology company for violating antitrust laws in the European Union.
In an unprecedented decision, the European Commission ordered Meta to stop linking the classified advertising service “Facebook Market Place” to its extensive social media network, and to refrain from imposing unfair trade conditions on competing used goods platforms.
