Amid all of the chaos, coups, and corruption crackdowns in Saudi Arabia, and with declarations of war being dropped like confetti, the Tadawul All-Share Index is barely lower...
We first pointed out the 'odd' appearance of a panic-buyer in Saudi stocks just two days after the chaos erupted. But it has now been a week and it seems someone is extremely keen to keep up appearances that all is well in the 'market' for Saudi stocks....
But while stocks have been 'managed to unchanged', the cost of insuring Saudi Arabian debt against default through five-year credit-default swaps soared more than 20 basis points last week...
Renewed tensions with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group, have compounded investor concerns about rising political risks in the region. The last time the nation’s CDS jumped as much in a single week was in January 2016 at the height of the oil-market crash.
And it appears Saudi Bank stocks are the most defended as the nation's bonds tumble...
It is clear that yet another nation has embraced the American model of 'markets' as policy tools.