☕️ Anwar Ibrahim became PM (Prime Memer, not Minister)

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

For some residents in Gua Musang, floods aren’t an annual event but almost a weekly event. Families living in Kampung Batu Papan 2 do not get to live in peace after experiencing flash floods nearly 50 times in just one year. More than 50 families in the area have been struggling with the problem for over five years, according to a resident there.

Sharing is caring — 46% of Malaysians (n = 2,687) are open to sharing who they voted for in GE15 among their friends, according to a survey conducted by YouGov.

Looking to migrate? You might want to consider Canada as it looks to fill the gap in its economy left by ageing baby boomers leaving the workforce. Its federal government announced an aggressive plan to take in 500,000 immigrants annually by 2025.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Another busy day for most Malaysians as productivity falls to an all-time low, anxiously waiting for the announcement of the new government. Before we dive into the news, Anwar Ibrahim has been dishing out memes in the form of his actions.

Watch:

• He told the media he brought “Good News”, more like good food.

• He brought seats to the media that were waiting outside of his office. Looks like there are more than 30.

• He distributed popcorn to the media with the packaging saying, “Once you pop, you cannot stop”.

GE15 Updates:

• Calls for Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to step down are getting louderMCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon calls Zahid to resign as the party believes Zahid is no longer fit to continue leading BN and suggests Mohamad Hasan (Tok Mat) as his replacement. Chong and MIC president SA Vigneswaran confirmed the existence of a letter, which expressed BN lawmakers’ support for Anwar Ibrahim to be the next prime minister.Zahid denied rumours of him resigning as BN chairman and UMNO president that allegedly went viral on social media.

• Weirdly, BN is the kingmaker in the political sh*t show we are in right nowBN supreme council, composed of seven members from the coalition’s component parties, will deliberate this morning on whether to accept an offer from Pakatan Harapan or Perikatan Nasional to form a new government. The decision will be conveyed to the 30 MPs who must adopt the party position.To be fair, BN wanted to be neutral initially and a formidable opposition (with 30 MPs, really, who are they kidding). The Yang di-Pertuan Agong has decreed the 30 MPs take part in a unity government. Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has also been advised to do the same to end the current political crisis in the country.

• Kerajaan Perpaduan MalaysiaNew Straits Times reported that PH and BN have apparently worked out a 10-point agreement to form a unity government, including parties from Sabah and Sarawak. The concept, dubbed “Kerajaan Perpaduan Malaysia”, aims to promote a well-represented government that would last for the next five years.The King will be holding a special meeting this morning with his fellow Rulers to discuss the impasse in the formation of a federal government.

• Superman Hew, the hero Malaysia doesn’t need, is arrestedPolice have arrested the former DAP member Hew Kuan Yaw over a video of a political speech featuring Hew, which the police found to contain elements that threaten public order.

• Annuar Musa stirring racial sentimentFormer Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Annuar Musa, shared an undated video, seemingly featuring a Taiwanese political rally with attendees wearing red attire. And the caption he wrote was, “Don’t take clear enemies of the religion as allies”. Just wow.

Seven states were told to be on alert for floodsThe Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) said that based on rain forecast information and the flood forecast model, there is a risk of flash floods in some locations if significant heavy rain or thunderstorms occur. The seven states are Johor, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Penang, Selangor and Sarawak. The public is told to visit the Public Info Banjir website, Facebook @PublicInfoBanjir and Twitter @JPS_InfoBanjir for more information periodically.

Sarawak to set up an RM8 bil sovereign fundThe Sarawak Legislative Assembly has approved a Bill to set up the sovereign wealth fund for Sarawak, which would enable the state to convert non-renewable assets to financial assets, invest for the future through forced savings, and secure the continued growth of financial reserves through diversified investments. The idea is to create an endowment to generate sustainable sources of income for future generations.

Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into another 1MDB, which was formerly Terengganu Investmen Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Terengganu. 

Business news

1. Malayan Banking Berhad, the country’s largest bank by market capitalisation, saw its net profit jump 28.5% to RM2.16bil in 3QFY22 ended Sept 30. The bank mentioned higher net fund and fee-based income and reduction in net impairment losses were the contributors to the healthy figures.

2. CIMB Group Holdings Bhd sees a leadership change in its consumer banking business. Effendy Shahul Hamid has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of group consumer & digital banking, effective Jan 1, 2023, replacing Samir Gupta.

3. The personal data of five million passengers and all employees of AirAsia were allegedly compromised by a ransomware attack by the Daixin Team ransomware group earlier this month. It’s rich data - the compromised data were said to contain the passengers’ information such as their IDs, full name, and booking ID and employee information with fields such as photos, secret questions and answers, and birth city. AirAsia has yet to respond to the news report.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Earthquake news: Turkey, Indonesia

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake at a depth of 2 km struck western Turkey. Fortunately, the country’s interior minister said there were no immediate reports of deaths or significant damage. Such magnitude is generally expected to cause light damage to buildings and other structures (except in the case of Indonesia, read on).

Meanwhile, the death toll from the earthquake that hit west Java, Indonesia, has jumped to 271 and 40 others are still missing; 20 children were killed when one school collapsed during the earthquake. To recap, west Java was hit by a 5.6-magnitude earthquake, which is less powerful than the one that hit Turkey. However, the damage is significantly greater — why so? A mix of a few factors: earthquake-proof methods were not adopted in construction to build the buildings, earthquake depth and close proximity to fault lines. 

Read: Why was Indonesia’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake so deadly? 

Busy news day for Manchester United, Saudi Arabia is celebrating victory like Malaysia (i.e. public holiday)

The fallout between Cristiano Ronaldo and Man U has ended with Ronaldo leaving the club “with immediate effect” by “mutual agreement”, rendering him a club-less footballer now (though he’s busy with the World Cup). On the same day this was announced, the Football Association (FA) fined him GBP50,000 and a 2-match suspension for hitting a fan’s phone to the ground (watch here). Guess the latter fine wouldn’t be effective anymore with him leaving. 

After 17 years of owning the club, the Glazer family is considering a strategic review to sell (full or partial) or getting a new investment for the club. The share price of Man U jumped by 20% upon this news, giving the club a market cap of USD2.6 bil. Ronaldo has criticised the Glazer family in his recent interview with Piers Morgan, that they “don’t care” about the club. 

Saudi Arabia delivered a shocking victory, beating Argentina, one of the world’s top-ranked teams by 2-1 in the group stage of the World Cup. The middle eastern country had only ever won 3 world cup matches in its history prior to this. Following this, King Salman announced a public holiday for its people. At least this is something worth celebrating, achieving something on the world stage. 

Watch: Saudi Arabia vs Argentina match highlights and goals.

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro to challenge election results

The far-right president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has challenged his loss in the election last month after left-wing Luiz Inacio Lula beat him by a narrow margin. In his filing to the court, he claimed that their audit has shown “malfunction” in older electronic voting machines and wants nearly 280,000 votes to be annulled, which would leave him with 51% of the remaining valid votes. Leading up to the election, Bolsonaro has been spreading unsubstantiated claims of election fraud - the same playbook as Donald Trump, earning him the nickname the “Trump of South America”. 

Bolsonaro’s policies aren’t good for mother Earth as he seeks to accelerate the exploitation of Amazon in the name of development. 

Worth reading:

1. PC maker HP expects to chop between 4,000-6,000 jobs, about 12% of its nearly 50,000-strong workforce, as sales of personal computers and laptops are sliding.

2. The Chinese e-commerce giant and No.2 retailer JD.com is taking a different approach to containing costs. Instead of laying off workers, it is slashing the salaries of about 2,000 managers by 10-20% and diverting some of the savings towards a USD1.4 bil employee benefits fund. Billionaire founder Richard Li will donate RMB100 mil (USD14 mil) of his own money towards staff welfare. 

3. The Reserve Bank of  New Zealand delivered a record rate hike of 75 basis points (bps) to 4.25% to arrest inflation and expects rates to peak at 5.5%. This is the ninth consecutive hike since October 2021, with rates rising by 400 bps. The central bank projects the economy will start contracting (nicer word to use than recession) from Q2 2023, lasting a whole year until the end of Q1 2024. 

4. The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk has caused millions of its users to seek alternative platforms. One of the beneficiaries of this exodus is Hive Social, which saw its downloads exceed two mil recently. The app was founded by a high school student and a self-taught coder, Kassandra, in 2019, and until today, it has a grand total of 3 employees, including the founder.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. Anonymous street artist Banksy told his fans to steal from GUESS’ Regent Street outlet after they used his artwork without his permission.

2. Explained: How Japan beat Germany (2-1) in the World Cup match last night. Watch match highlights and goals here.

3. Is it economically sensible to host the World Cup, or for that matter, any mega sports event? Depends, but not so for developing countries.