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Good morning Voornaam,

We have officially reached that time of year when you're either reading this over a late breakfast while on holiday, or at your desk while you question why you are one of the few people not on leave. Either way, welcome!

I have a couple of new podcasts to keep you occupied today. The first is Ghost Wrap, which brings you a whirlwind update on Tharisa, the enX - Nedbank deal, Thungela, Italtile and Grindrod. Ghost Wrap is brought to you by Mazars. You'll find the latest episode here.

There's also a new Magic Markets podcast, with international group Lululemon's results inspiring us to focus on the world of fashion retail. Moe dealt with the latest from Lululemon and I gave an overview of South African fashion retailers, including an explanation of why they tend to be so diversified. Magic Markets is made possible by data automation experts B2IT. Find the latest episode here.

There's also a short-and-sweet piece from AA Inform on retirement fund trends that could change your savings. If you're curious what those trends are, you can find them at this link.

Have a great day!

Take me straight to Ghost Bites - I want to make sense of SENS

BRAND NEW: Ghost Wrap podcast

(Tharisa | enX - Nedbank | Thungela | Italtile | Grindrod)

The latest Ghost Wrap podcast goes into more detail than usual, as these stories are too important to miss. Ghost Wrap is brought to you by Mazars.

Listen to the Ghost Wrap podcast here (6 minutes long)

BRAND NEW: Magic Markets podcast

In Episode 155 of Magic Markets, we looked at pure-play athleisure business Lululemon and compared it to various South African apparel retailers, with particular attention paid to why local retailers are far more diversified than a group like Lululemon and what this means for investors. This show is brought to you by international data and automation specialists B2IT.

Listen to Magic Markets Episode 155 here (22 minutes long)

LATEST: Simple, but Effective Investing

Nico Katzke of Satrix is passionate about helping people achieve investment success. Diversification is a critical ingredient in that recipe. He writes about it in this article. I highly recommend reading it.

Read about the importance of diversification and how to achieve it

LATEST: Photography and the art of disruption
(by Dominique Olivier)

In her latest column, Dominique Olivier tells the story of photography and how it disrupted the art world. There's much to learn about innovation from this story.

Read about photography and the art of disruption here

LATEST: How to really manage your money, featuring Nico Katzke of Satrix

If you can't save, then you can't invest. Managing your money properly is the first step in any investment journey. I loved discussing real-world ideas and strategies with Nico Katzke of Satrix in this podcast. It's well worth a listen.

Listen to the Ghost Stories podcast here (44 minutes long)

LATEST: Unlock the Stock with TWK Investments

TWK Investments returned to the Unlock the Stock platform to share insights into the recent numbers and the strategic outlook. You can watch the recording here, thanks to our partner A2X.

Watch the TWK Investments Unlock the Stock recording

LATEST: Unlock the Stock with Karooooo

Karooooo joined the Unlock the Stock platform for the first time to share insights into the recent numbers and the strategic outlook both locally and abroad. You can watch the recording here, thanks to our partner A2X.

Watch the Karooooo Unlock the Stock recording

DAILY: TreasuryONE Market Update

The dovish tone from the Fed has given the rand significant strength, trading below R18.30 this morning after flirting with R18.10 on Friday in a market with thin liquidity because of the public holiday.

Not all central banks are singing the same tune as the Fed. The ECB explicitly stated that there was no talk about rate cuts in their meeting last week. Still, risk sentiment remains positive, with emerging market currencies holding on to most of last week's gains. Notably, the US 10-year yield is 3.91%, which is substantially lower than where we saw it just a few weeks ago.

Gold is at $2,022 this morning and Brent Crude is trading below $77 a barrel.

Remember to watch the recording of the webinar that I hosted with TreasuryONE here.

DAILY: Ghost Bites

Get the latest on Grindrod, Huge Group, KAP, SA Corporate, Spear and Tharisa. This is all available with a single click in Ghost Bites.

Read Ghost Bites at this link to stay updated on local company news

A substantial drop in earnings at KAP

KAP is a diversified industrials group, yet some businesses are more important than others. Safripol is key to the story and is facing a horrible time at the moment, with the polymer market in the doldrums. I don't pretend to understand the plastics market, but I do know that it is incredibly cyclical.

The rest of the group is a mixed bag (as usual), with the net result that earnings for the six months to December will be down by at least 20%. That's the minimum requirement to trigger the release of a trading statement. When they stress the "at least" point and don't give an earnings range, it's often because the drop is considerably worse. Time will tell.

In other news, Grindrod's ambitions with the Maputo port have been given a boost. Huge Group has raised R300 million in preference share funding. SA Corporate and Spear REIT gave important property sector updates. Tharisa showed the value of having two levers to pull, as chrome is doing well right now even though PGMs are not.

Of course, there's the usual assortment of Little Bites as well.

I make it easy for you to stay up to date on company news with a single click in Ghost Bites. Find it here>>>

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