The rand has been such a focus area this year and with good reason. It's been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions, driven by all kinds of global and country-specific factors. The team at TreasuryONE will be hosting a fireside chat on Thursday morning at 9:30am, giving you an opportunity to bring your questions and learn from the team. This is a truly wonderful opportunity and places are limited, so be sure to register here to attend for free>>>

Against this backdrop of volatility, many investors are seeking more secure and dependable returns. In their latest article, Fedgroup looks at recent trends in investor behaviour across riskier and less risky asset classes. By drawing on several data points, Fedgroup points to a general risk aversion by investors by locally and globally. Read it here to find out more>>>

Burger Wars - a tale of great marketing

In a brand-spanking-new Ghost Global article, Dominique Olivier dug into Burger King vs. McDonald'sand some of the fascinating marketing approaches taken by both companies. With Spur's excellent results fresh in our minds from last week and Pedros having a full go at Nando's and KFC on local social media lately, there's always something spicy going on in this sector. To see how the Americans do it, including by far the cheekiest marketing campaign I've ever seen, read this highly entertaining and informative piece>>>

Two great podcasts for your Monday

Firstly, with a new episode of Ghost Wrap due tomorrow, make sure you're up to date with the latest from AngloGold, Pan African Resources, Impala Platinum, Sappi, Mondi, Mpact, Standard Bank and Spur. Brought to you by Mazars, it takes just 5 minutes to get on top of these stories. Find it here>>>

Then, in Magic Markets, there's a new s how with Craig Antonie of AnBro Capital Investments where we talked about "Bessie" - possibly your new semiconductor bestie. With the stock ticker $BESI cementing its nickname (and with no relation to the machine that Lightning McQueen used to fix the road in Cars), this European company is playing in the high-tech world of semiconductors and probably isn't even on your radar. Along with a discussion on recent tech earnings in the US, you can learn about BESI in this show>>>

A drop in earnings at Exxaro - and a new chart

If you kept an eye on Ghost Bites last week, you would know that I've started including more charts. Not just share price charts, but other important charts like multi-year HEPS broken down into first and second halves of each year. On mining companies for example, this demonstrates what a cycle looks like.

Exxaro is the latest major mining company to flag a drop in earnings, with HEPS down by between 23% and 37%. None of this is going to do the South African fiscus much good by the way in terms of tax revenue, or the trade deficit for that matter. The earnings chart in Ghost Bites will show you that the coal cycle looks different to what other mining companies have been going through - a good reminder that commodities face different supply and demand dynamics.

We also saw news come in of earnings at Eastern Platinum (currently making most of its money from chrome - but that will change) and Finbond, where MIT (yes, the famous education institution) and Net1 Finan ce Holdings are trying to sell their stakes back to the company. For these stories and a few important updates sitting in Little Bites as well, read Ghost Bites here>>>

A yo-yo day of inflation data

After inflation data came out in the US on Thursday, the rand had a busy day on Friday as two conflicting data sets were released. The first was the Producer Price Index (PPI) figure in the US, which climbed 0.8% in the 12 months to Jule. That's up from a 0.2% rise in the previous month. On this metric, inflation in the US isn't abating as quickly as many would hope, which drove a brief flurry of emerging market currency weakness where the rand touched R18.95.

At the ot her end of the spectrum, we had the Michigan inflation expectations an hour or so after PPI was released. Year-ahead inflation expectations in the US unexpectedly declined in early August, matching a more than two-year low, despite higher gasoline (fuel) and energy costs. Short-term consumer inflation expectations decreased slightly from 3.4% to 3.3% and long-term inflation expectations remained stable at 2.9%. This data contradicted the PPI reading and gave some support to the rand, taking us back to R18.85 against the dollar.

Don't forget to register for Thursday's fireside chat with the TreasuryONE team!

Have a lovely start to your week.