Global financial asset bubbles could blow up due to rate hikes in emerging economies, an official at China’s banking regulator has warned, according to Bloomberg. Asset prices, which have been inflated by historic volumes of stimulus deployed to fight the pandemic, could take a hit if policymakers in emerging markets raise borrowing costs as rates in advanced economies remain ultra-low, the official said.

Increased electronics demand has driven tin prices to their highest in a decade: The metal — which is used in the manufacturing of circuit boards — has seen gains of some 133% since March 2020, driven by increased demand for electronics during work / study from home periods during covid-19 lockdowns, the Financial Times reports. Tin is also benefiting from a drought in China’s Yunnan province that shut down tin smelters — and the eruption of a volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has disrupted export services, constricting supply of the metal and driving up prices.

One measure of inflation in the US just saw its biggest y-o-y increase in three decades: The core personal consumption expenditure index jumped 3.1% in April from a year ago, beating a consensus forecast of a 2.9% increase after rising 1.9% in March, according to the Financial Times.

Transitory? Though the new figures could increase nerves that the US economy is overheating, policymakers maintain that the resurgence of inflation is likely to be short-lived, the salmon-colored paper says. And the market shrug that greeted the figure last week suggest that investors are, for the moment at least, in agreement. “We are in the camp that April, May and June are likely to see very high numbers that will likely come down and prove to be transitory,” said a fixed-income strategist at Charles Schwab.

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 fell 1.2% at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 3.87 bn (67.1% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 5.6% YTD.

In the green: Orascom Financial Holding (+5.4%), Export Development Bank (+2.4%) and Fawry (+2.1%).

In the red: ElSewedy Electric (-4.2%), CIB (-3.5%) and Emaar (-2.6%).