News flash Beyond the noise

Beyond the noise

Following lower-than-anticipated inflation numbers from the US last week, we saw similarly encouraging inflation figures out of the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa this week. UK inflation data for June reflected a higher-than-expected drop from 8.7% to 7.9%, and, earlier in the month, the euro-area reported year-over-year inflation of 5.5%, the lowest increase…

News flash The magnificent seven

The magnificent seven

Today marks the halfway mark for 2023 and what a ride it has been for equities so far, despite persistent high inflation; ongoing rate hikes; a protracted war in the Ukraine; a banking crisis in March, which included regional banks in the US as well as the failure of Credit Suisse; and predictions about an…

News flash Big picture investing

Big picture investing

Markets this week struggled to take clear direction from central banks and economic data. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 indices slid on Wednesday as the Fed suggested that more interest rate increases might be appropriate this year, after deciding to pause the tightening cycle last week. Meanwhile, an increase in the UK’s base rate…

News flash Populism over pragmatism

Populism over pragmatism

South Africa’s ruling party has, in recent weeks, pressed on with three pieces of divisive legislation in the face of increasingly (and unusually) vocal dissent from the business community. These new laws codify populist and impractical policies in an apparent attempt to strengthen the ruling party’s prospects during the national elections in 2024. The laws…

News flash The 2023 embrace of AI

The 2023 embrace of AI

Equities have enjoyed a solid start to the month, with Big Tech companies driving the gains. Growing enthusiasm about artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the forces powering the surge in stocks of the trillion-dollar club, which comprises Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. (We have exposure to all of these stocks through our offshore house-view…

News flash Reversal of fortunes

Reversal of fortunes

At the outset of this year, we wrote an article about why we’re not bullish about the JSE, despite its outperformance of the global markets in 2022. In line with our expectations, we have seen a reversal of fortunes between major international indices and the local bourse this year. If anything, the tide has turned…

News flash Dead

The Weak Rand Conundrum

The South African rand has tumbled to new lows against the US dollar and other major currencies this week, with the R20/$ resistance level in clear sight. The rand shed around 2% of its value yesterday as the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) announced a widely expected 50bps increase in the repo rate—a move that…

News flash

Standoff

In what has become as much of an American tradition as the Superbowl, the White House and Congress are currently wrangling about whether they should allow the US government to borrow more money. The US has been operating on an annual deficit for most years since 2001 and now – once again – needs to…