Sinvestors, assemble
Good morning {{first_name}},
I’m trying a lot of different things at the moment. This morning, for the first time ever, I’m splitting Ghost Bites in half.
Why? Well…
Firstly, because there’s only one of me and I’m tired of racing through the updates in earnings season to try and meet the morning newsletter timing. There’s a lot to get through and there’s much to try and understand.
Secondly, because you don’t want to read a biblical update either. When Ghost Bites has 10 or more updates (which is common in earnings season), it’s a mountain to get through.
So, today, I’ll be in your inbox twice. This time around, I’m here with news on local consumer stocks in Ghost Bites. This includes the sinvestment duo of AB InBev and British American Tobacco, alongside FMCG powerhouse AVI and business class retailer Woolworths.
If you want to understand more about how professional money managers look at these updates and change their portfolios accordingly, then check out my latest podcast with Reza Fakie of Old Mutual Investment Group. He’s a quantitative portfolio manager who spends his days understanding the markets and tweaking his models.
That’s it for now. I’ll see you with the rest of the goodies later - including DealMakers and a great new podcast from Investec.
Ghost Bites - making sense of SENS
The first of today’s Ghost Bites focuses on consumer stocks that released updates yesterday.
AB InBev has been lucrative for investors this year.
AVI can only thank their lucky…fish?
British American Tobacco’s first half performance met expectations
Woolworths: even business class shoppers have taken a knock
Featured video: how Boxer and Vodacom grow
Ever wondered what like-for-like sales actually means? And how we calculate it?
Have you looked at the results of the telcos and wondered why Africa is so important?
Well, buckle up for 10 minutes of hard-hitting insights in my latest YouTube video. Believe me, it’s worth your time.
More ways to learn and grow
The Finance Ghost plugged in with Capitec
Maurice van Heerden explains his approach: entrepreneurship without excuses. It’s about building a winning culture that rewards performance and self-starters. The results speak for themselves!
The real risk is playing it safe
Markets are wildly volatile things. But if you have the strength to look through those swings, there’s a bigger risk to be scared of: inflation. And history has taught us what the best protection against inflation is.
Results of yesterday’s poll in Ghost Bites
The results of the poll on REITs are very interesting. More than a quarter of you still don’t buy REITs at all! That genuinely shocked me, actually. I certainly buy them.
Global markets update with Shaun Murison
US tech made a sharp comeback yesterday, led by Microsoft, which jumped over 15% post its results release. Sales and cloud growth were ahead of consensus while capital expenditure was below. Post US close, Amazon results saw the share price pick up where Microsoft left off, producing double digit gains in after hours trade. Apple, on the other hand, sold off heavily after earnings missed consensus.
US futures are up this morning and Asian equity markets are rebounding hard with tech leading the way. South Korea's KOSPI is up over 15% in early trade while Japan's Nikkei is up over 4%. Chinese and Hong Kong bourses are also firmer.
While the Bank of Japan left rates unchanged, intervention in currency markets saw the yen gain more than two percent against the dollar, although this move has partially unwound this morning. The dollar index is however trading at its lowest levels in roughly six weeks. Yesterday's PCE inflation data out of the US came in lower than expected while second quarter GDP growth fell short of consensus.
Gold is marginally weaker this morning after two days of solid gains.
Oil prices have started to drift lower despite renewed US Iran attacks yesterday.
Risk on trade sees the rand clawing back losses against the dollar and we are expecting a positive start for the JSE All Share Index.
This update is provided by Shaun Murison, Senior Market Analyst at randswiss.com. Connect with him on LinkedIn here and follow him on X here.
Key Indicators:
USD/ZAR R16.48/$ | US 10yr 4.65% | Gold $4,079/oz | Platinum $1,650/oz | Brent Crude $80.67