The pandemic gave the world’s top hedge funds their best year in a decade: The all-time top 20 hedge fund managers made USD 63.5 bn from the covid-induced market crash last year, accounting for more than half of the industry’s gains last year, according to LCH Investments data cited by Reuters.

But not everyone was able to read the tea leaves: The spectacular market sell-off in last March caused hedge fund earnings to fall to USD 127 bn during 2020 from USD 178 bn the year before. Among the losers was Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater, which lost USD 12.1 bn in the crash.

Corporate share buybacks are on a gradual rise in the US in a sign that big companies have more liquidity to spare after a fall in spending last year thanks to the pandemic, reports Reuters. Investors are cheering on from the sidelines, hopeful that the return of repurchases will put even more rocket fuel under the current market mania.

We’re still a fairly long way from reaching pre-pandemic levels though: S&P 500 companies spent USD 116 bn on share buybacks in 4Q2020, an improvement from USD 102 bn in the previous quarter, but far below the USD 182 bn in 4Q2019.

The EGX30 fell 0.1% yesterday on turnover of EGP 1.6 bn (14.8% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 6.1% YTD.

In the green: Dice (+4.6%), Orascom Development Egypt (+2.6%) and Palm Hills (+2.6%).

In the red: Eastern Company (-2.5%), GB Auto (-1.4%) and Ibnsina Pharma (-1.0%).

Shares in China, Korea and Japan are in the red this morning while futures point to a weak opening in Europe in a few hours’ time. Wall Street looks set to open in the red later today.