Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to our final edition of EnterpriseAM for this holiday-shortened workweek. A very Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating this weekend — here’s to a wonderful break with family and friends.

PSA #1- We’re all off on Thursday, 6 January in observance of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Friday. The EGX, central bank, cabinet and manpower ministry have all issued statements confirming it’s a national holiday. Your next regularly scheduled holiday will be Thursday, 27 January. We then start a long holiday drought stretching into late-April, at which time we’ll be deep into Ramadan.

PSA #2- Heading to Dubai from Egypt? You’ll need a QR-coded PCR test before departure — and have to take another one on arrival. All travellers to Dubai must show a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours previously — but PCR certificates for passengers traveling from Egypt (as well as India and Vietnam) must also include a QR code, under new guidance on the Emirates airlines website. Egypt also made the list of dozens of countries from which arrivals to Dubai must also take another covid-19 PCR test upon landing in the emirate — and remain in their hotels or homes until they receive a negative result.

There’s no word yet on the outcome of the final votes that were scheduled for yesterday in the House of Representatives on the proposed fintech act and the unified budget act. The House did give its preliminary approval to the Unified Planning Act in a plenary session, according to Ahram Gate. The legislation would, if passed, dictate how governorate-level economic, social, and urban development plans are implemented.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- The Big Quit is showing no signs of slowing in the US after a record 4.5 mn workers quit their jobs in November, according to official figures released yesterday. The so-called ‘great resignation’ was a hot topic throughout 2021 in the United States as the number of people quitting their jobs kept notching new records, indicating a tightening labor market and stronger wage growth. The figures are everywhere in the business press this morning from Bloomberg and the Financial Times to Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

Warren Buffett’s rethink on Apple could prove to be his best play ever: The ex-tech skeptic has made more than USD 120 bn on paper thanks to his pivot into Apple stock, according to CNBC. Buoyed by the historic covid-fuelled tech rally, Apple on Monday became the first company to clock a USD 3 tn market cap, after adding USD 1 tn to its market value in less than 16 months. Buffett, who began buying shares in the company in 2016 and owned a 5.4% stake in Apple as of last September, has seen his USD 36 bn investment surge almost 400% to USD 160 bn.

MARKET WATCH-

The OPEC+ alliance of oil producers is going ahead with its plan to increase output by 400k barrels a day in February amid indications that the omicron variant will only have a limited impact on global demand, Reuters reports.

Do markets think covid is roaring to an end? The price of points in that direction. Brent and US crude both closed up yesterday, prompting one energy analyst to tell the newswire that “it appears that the market [thinks] that omicron is the beginning of the end of covid-19.”

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Key news triggers to keep your eye on:

• Foreign reserves: December’s foreign reserves figures will be announced before the week is out.
• Interest rates: Further afield, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will hold its first policy meeting of 2022 on Thursday, 3 February.

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations gets underway in Cameroon next Sunday, 9 January. The championship will run until Sunday, 6 February.

The World Youth Forum kicks off in Sharm El Sheikh next Monday, 10 January and runs until Thursday, 13 January.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, urban development as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: The past year saw Egypt move forward in its energy hub ambitions, which we detailed in Part 1 and Part 2 of our year in review series. Going into 2022, there are continued snarls when it comes to infrastructure such as high transportation costs and supply chain woes, but so far it doesn’t seem like they will phase the energy sector which is looking to continue its momentum in the coming year through a number of agreements, projects, and plans to increase energy exports.