South Africa

The South African economy certainly has its fair share of challenges. Volatility is an innate characteristic of the South African Rand (ZAR), helping to drive wild price fluctuations in cross-currency exchange rates. While the country boasts significant natural resources in the form of coal, gold,...

By Javier Hasse and Eric TerBush. MPX International Corp (OTC: MPXOF) recently announced entrance into an agreement with South African producer First Growth Holdings Ltd. that will lead to the acquisition of a 51% interest in the company. Interested in the acquisition and the African market,...

South Africa's first dedicated CBD store is opening courtesy of AIM3 Ventures Inc. and its transaction target Southern Sun Pharma.  The retail and distribution venture will be branded under the company's Goodleaf brand, AIM3 Ventures announced Wednesday.  The company also...

Africa became more cannabis-friendly last week after the South African government passed legislation that partially legalizes CBD and CBD products. What Happened Under changes enacted by the South African government, CBD was removed from the Schedule 7 list of the Medicines Act. Schedule 7 includes...

In the global cannabis landscape, Africa is an overlooked market. This is due to a number of factors, such as the illegality of the plant across the continent and the poor economic conditions that many African countries face. Africa has the potential to become an enormous cannabis market due to the...

The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (NYSE: EZA), the largest exchange traded fund dedicated to stocks in Africa's largest economy, is up about 6 percent this year. On the surface, that sounds pretty good, but upon further examination, EZA looks weak and vulnerable to some downside. What Happened...

The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (NYSE: EZA) is up 3.28 percent over the past week, reducing its year-to-date loss to just over 22 percent. That's more than double the 2018 loss of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and enough to make EZA one of the worst-performing single-country exchange-traded...

Ex-U.S. equity exchange-traded funds have been popular destinations for investors for over a year, but some investors like the idea of skirting volatility in international markets. This is particularly true with emerging markets stocks. The iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol Emerging Markets ETF (CBOE:EEMV...

Seasoned emerging market investors know that even supposedly diversified emerging markets exchange-traded funds are heavily allocated to Chinese stocks. Those allocations stand to increase following MSCI's June announcement that China A-shares, the stocks trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen, will...

Conducting business in Africa is usually not a simple endeavor. And, while it is true that each country and each region’s economy is very different from the next, a few things can be said about the continent as a whole and the challenges of conducting business there. Wondering what these...

Africa is a very diverse continent, and so are its countries’ economies. However, they have one thing in common: growth is still ahead of them. Another interesting thing to notice is that companies there serve millions of customers, largely due to the fact that penetration of U.S.-based...

“[Morocco’s] membership in the African Union [...] [is] the conclusion of a big process that has been led for many years.” – Saâd Bendidi. After more than three decades of absence, Morocco returned to the African Union (AU) in 2017. But, the return did not come without...

Investors looking for exposure to emerging markets have plenty of options to chose from, but there are a few clear favorites among investors for 2017. Investing in Russia could prove to be a top play for investors that borrow in currencies with a low interest and rate and buy currencies that...

The Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Emerging Markets Equity ETF (NYSE: GEM), one of the first exchange-traded funds brought to market by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), is about a month away from its first anniversary, and it is accurate to say GEM is off to a fine start. Happy Birthday, GEM! GEM is...

Throughout the 1980's, Africa lost almost half of its elephant population. By the end of decade, countries from around the world agreed on a global ban on the ivory trade. As demand for ivory in Asia continues to surge (take a look at the results of this NatGeo survey that evaluates who...