NEW: SpaceX CDS takes off as bonds stumble Investors unimpressed with the hype around SpaceX have a new way to bet against Elon Musk’s rocket maker: the credit default swap market www.ifre.com/people-and-m...

[Foreign correspondent who doesn’t like football prewriting thing - just in case - about how African football has “come of age,” get in that guy who looks like Lumumba, long arduous pars on AFCON, explain Lumumba actually, carefully add parachute in copy if no African team gets much further,]

“We have enough atoms on this planet. We just need to move those atoms in a way that’s more sustainable — and also politically more decentralised.” Want to hear from the too many and too few atoms factions before I decide on this tbh www.ft.com/content/7ccf...

I've never seen a bondholder committee so divided after a sovereign restructuring deal but basically: institutional investors like Morgan Stanley are a lot less keen on criticising the IMF openly, unlike hedge funds. Official creditors killed off the export warrant for being too complex.

Everyone's posting this with pictures of the Reichsadler but TBH my immediate through was Bokassa's throne. When you're talking about Trump, garish, actually cheap looking gilt will always win out over any Third Reich aesthetics.

America: one of those revolutions where the freedom fighters brought their ferocious ideological fervour for liberty to bear on the battlefield, specifically in the form of liberty to run away from that battlefield. (This was quite a logical response to being in a C18th army tbf.)

Has South Africa fixed the police, intelligence, and other state failings that in July 2021 resulted in the country's worst unrest since the end of apartheid? We find out tomorrow.

There is a lull (for now) in sovereigns having no option but to restructure their debt. And there is a boom underway in private and/or collateralised lending to sovereigns away from bond markets. These may be connected... good round-up on that www.ft.com/content/784c...

Different currencies and stuff obviously, but Hungary’s 10-year forint bond yield is only about 0.3 or so percentage points from going below 10-year gilts.

Me: Okay, there's been a thunderstorm, the heatwave should be over now. (New health bar appears) (The sun is now named 'Sol, Starflame of Regret') (Objectively the greatest piece of classical music ever recorded starts playing).

The second of the doublet quakes that struck Venezuela overnight was the largest since 1900. And coming in the midst of a fragile political transition. A quake in Caracas in 1812 accelerated the end of Venezuela's brief first independent republic. www.ft.com/content/4eb2...

Lots of things going on at the moment in India. robbieandrew.github.io/india/

American hyperbole and/or brainrot about British civilisational decline goes back a long way. Not so much about the food or air conditioning then though

Not thinking big enough. Want the full sankin-kōtai please www.ft.com/content/f304...

Venezuela's debt restructuring is now set to pip Greece's $200bn as the biggest in history, with a larger than expected $240bn debt pile being discussed. Bondholders will see that as a big kitchen-sinking. Specifically, a big kitchen sink thrown at them. www.ft.com/content/b7f2...

Aliko Dangote. “If I have a big enemy, my prayer for him is to go and build a refinery... Everybody, including our bankers, believed that this would never happen.” www.ft.com/content/afed...

Can see you are all posting about the all-important political anniversary already, but remember, the 70th birthday of the Paris Club of creditor countries is actually tomorrow.

South London just had a rolling barrage of a thunderstorm pass over, which reminded me of two things: 1) Britain adapting to more intense summer heatwaves is also going to mean adapting to more of these. 2) I miss the sharp ‘crackle’ of Johannesburg thunderstorms.

You can now pay US dollars for Iranian oil - and in theory, even import it into the US (but not Cuba please) - without incurring US sanctions. 'General License X' issued today has made the Iran peace deal's initial sanctions waivers operational. ofac.treasury.gov/media/936206...

Despite a name shared with a hallowed figure of the party, and apparatchik credentials as a former state prosecutor, the 'grey man' simply could not wield patronage to master the endemic elite intrigue this sultry riverine capital is known for etc etc

Running the 55-mile Comrades ultramarathon is so normal in South Africa that it's hard to find someone who doesn't know a finisher. Covering the 12-hour race was one of the most life-affirming experiences of my career. Read my story here, with beautiful photos by James Oatway.

A whistleblower alleged that Crawford Capital, a ‘digital payments’ firm with UK connections, siphoned the tax revenues of one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries on a massive scale. Then he was abducted. www.ft.com/content/5056...

Taiwan's central bank is now expecting GDP growth of 9.4% this year. You don't see trillion-dollar economies do that very often. (Other market forecasts below) www.cbc.gov.tw/en/cp-448-19...

In media/AI signs of the times, I got the coveted pitch from a Mercor recruiter today to sell my journalist soul to the AI knowledge-liquefaction machine. For a whole $100 a hour! (Via LinkedIn message, naturally. Sadly I must decline)

“The same handler who orchestrated the arson attacks also recruited people in the UK to paint anti-Islamic graffiti at mosques and other sites across London — illustrating the extent to which Russia-based actors have attempted to exacerbate social tensions in Britain.” www.ft.com/content/dd79...

The Egyptian pound is up close to 3% against the dollar today on the Iran deal. Which is nice for those who won a scramble to buy Egypt treasury bills in an auction only yesterday. About $1.2bn was offered for sale. There were *$7.3bn* in bids, of which $4bn was accepted. (Yields are about 24-25%.)

Pretty amazing to see YoY Murban oil price rises of nearly 120% two months ago, and 49% YoY two weeks ago, become just +18% this morning .. and 12% for Brent.

Would be interesting to see how this plays out for something that has become a big deal for the Korean won itself. As SK Hynix (and Samsung) have rallied, foreign holders sell them a lot domestically as their weights in Asian and EM indices hit portfolio concentration limits (hitting the won).

This was acquired by the Arts Council in the year that it was painted, 1961, 6 years before the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality. There’s an interview where he talks about his mother urging him to “dare to be a David”, and the joyful fearlessness in his best work is what I love.

People say British politicians don't get bond markets but this one absolutely gets the concept of palming off creditors with vaguely defined value recovery instruments. www.ft.com/content/fc90...

AI ate emerging markets, cont'd: “TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix explain nearly 60% of APAC equity returns year-to-date... 75% of earnings per share growth this year is expected to come from Korea, and 50% in 2027.” (SocGen)

Just how narrow has this year’s rally been in emerging markets? Very Only about 20% of stocks have outperformed the index, 80% have underperformed (maths, innit 👨‍🎓) TSMC, is 14% of the index. That’s nearly 3x Nvidia’s weight in MSCI World. Add in Samsung and SK Hynix and you’ve got another 14% 1/2

This one's also fun (hint 1: neighbours, hint 2: watch when the purple line goes dotted or estimated)

Another horrifying consequence as.ft.com/r/f56800b7-4...

The UK and South Africa: both facing pogroms against foreigners at the moment, and in both it reflects how anti-immigration rhetoric is grafted on to networks that extort communities. (In NI it's loyalist gangs, in SA there's a long history of vigilante groups such as Operation Dudula.)

🤘 www.theodramatist.com/early-modern...

I am quite interested in if/how the Tata Sons IPO is actually going to happen at this rate (and also generally in how AI has split EMs in equity market terms)

Emergency rate hike in Indonesia overnight to prop up the rupiah, only just over a week before the next scheduled rate decision was due. Yield on Indonesia's 10-year bonds up to 7.4%, or around late 2022 levels (when EM generally was in Bad Times). www.ft.com/content/f8fb...

Interesting that this glitch in the matrix might come from personal experience for Lowe (or Lowe fils). announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/... Anyway, much as I hate the spousal visa regime, I do hate fascists wearing the mask of fairness more.

The good news for the Hong Kong-listed CSOP SK Hynix Daily 2x Leveraged Product ETF is that it's still up 510% year to date. The bad news is that it was up 800% up to June 3rd.

Wonder Woman, digital sketch in Procreate. Always like the idea of Diana of Themyscira in the comics as a living link to an archaic heroic past, so went with a concept to play on that.

The Mandalorian and I Need to Understand the exact accounting / balance sheet reason (Nelson Peltz?) they clearly just shifted a streaming series line item into the budget for theatrical presentations and then stitched five episodes together.

Africa's richest man: bailing out package holidays across Europe this summer. In April, Aliko Dangote's Nigerian refinery “became the world's single largest exporter of aviation fuel, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data”: www.spglobal.com/energy/en/ne...

As a Tadawul-listed firm, Saudi Research and Media Group must be well annoyed that some geezer with the same name as their COO is the sole director of a Cayman company that now owns the original shares of the parent of Iran International, the broadcaster. www.ft.com/content/9d8d...

Like any good frontier market, the FT's latest stock picking competition bars shorts, and FT journalists. But unlike a frontier market, you can now trade your stock picks any time you like. www.ft.com/content/f46e...

The shop with the sign 'Local is Lekka' 8km south of Zambia's border with Congo marks the northern boundary of South African influence in the region

MSCI's emerging markets share benchmark started 2026 with two trillion-dollar stocks: Saudi Aramco (at $1.5trn) and TSMC ($1.3trn). It now has four - Samsung and SK Hynix (give or take $10bn here or there) have crossed the $1trn threshold, while TSMC and Aramco are each closing in on $2trn.

“Workers in its DX division [smartphones etc] will only receive about Won6mn [~$4,000] in bonuses, according to a person close to the company… the Samsung Electronics Company Union, which is composed mainly of DX members, had requested a court injunction” www.ft.com/content/1b76...

Interesting how much the early history of British America (specifically the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony here) was basically about keeping out people from Yorkshire.

The Fantastic Four, after more playing around in Procreate.