Weekly Market Update - 31 July 2023

Insider Trading

British billionaire Joe Lewis, the owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club in London, has been charged with insider trading in the US. Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment in New York that the 86-year-old passed on inside information from companies in which he was an investor to friends, including his personal pilots, assistants, and romantic partners. Lewis, the founder of investment firm the Tavistock Group, faces more than a dozen charges, including securities fraud. Prosecutors allege he was insider trading for eight years, even allegedly loaning cash to those he tipped off.

Source: Bloomberg

FED Hike

The Federal Reserve resumed raising US interest rates and Chair Jerome Powell left open the possibility of further hikes, which he emphasized will depend on incoming data that has recently signalled a resilient economy. Policymakers lifted borrowing costs for the 11th time since March 2022 to curb inflation. The quarter percentage-point hike boosted the target range for the Fed’s benchmark federal funds rate to 5.25% to 5.5% — the highest level in 22 years. See the meeting’s key takeaways here. The US economy will narrowly avoid slipping into a recession even as higher interest rates and a pickup in unemployment weigh on consumers, fresh Congressional Budget Office estimates show.

Source: Bloomberg

Thailand Real Estate Accelerating

An influx of Russians to Thailand’s biggest island is accelerating as Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine drives more people to seek a life abroad. The number of villas sold on Phuket last year surged 82% to 338, about half of which were purchased by Russians, according to real estate agency Knight Frank Thailand. Restaurants, saunas, concerts and ballet performances are now catering to the new clientele, while Phuket International Airport makes announcements in Russian. And in a sign of the island’s importance for expanding Moscow’s diplomatic reach in Southeast Asia, the island now even has its own Russian consulate.

Source: Bloomberg