European gyms under pressure

Good Morning Voornaam,

Virgin Active wishes that Europe had more energy

And not just for gym, either. Consumers in Europe are under huge pres sure, with escalating energy costs putting discretionary spending at risk. In an operational update, Brait noted that Virgin Active's European business is seeing the impact of higher living costs for consumers and operating costs for the gyms themselves.

In South Africa, Eskom helps us save money on electricity for several hours each day, thus we appear to have enough money (and motivation) to go to gym. This is mainly true for gyms in residential areas though, not inner-city clubs that are seeing a major drop in usage. Hybrid working is clearly still alive and well.

Two lessons in M&A

For all these updates and so much more, read Ghost Bites this morning. If it's good enough for South Africa's leading fund managers, it's good enough for you.

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Keen to get a daily update on the market? TreasuryONE has launched a daily podcast, presented by Andre Botha. You can add it to your list on Spotify or Google Podcasts for now, with more to come.

The rand had a risk-on start to the week, driven by improved sentiment around Europe as positive news came out of Ukraine. The rand got as far as R17.05 to the US dollar before ending the local session at around R17.10. In further proof that your favourite ghost will never understand the gold price, it benefitted from a risk-on trade and closed higher.

With US CPI due later today, the party for emerging markets currencies could come to an abrupt end. The forecast is for CPI to have slowed down to 8.1% and core inflation to come in at 6.1%. If the number prints higher, the Fed's hand will be forced in steeper hikes going forward, which would support the US dollar. If it prints lower, the current sent iment could hold.

Have a terrific Tuesday!