Several times this year, I wrote about the attractiveness of this macroeconomic environment for banks. With a recovery in credit demand and higher prevailing interest rates, the banks are able to lend out their capital and earn more for doing so. Of course, management of credit losses is critical, which is perhaps the most impressive thing about Nedbank's latest result.

To find out more, follow this link for a summary of Nedbank's interim results for the six months ended June 2022.

Some of the updates in Ghost Bites this morning:

• PSG's restructuring transaction has been approved by shareholders, with some s164 headaches now fac ing the company. This is a process through which shareholders can negotiate with the company to receive a fair value payout for their shares.
• Renergen announced the successful completion of the Central Energy Fund's due diligence on the Virginia Gas Project.
• Sabvest Capital released excellent results for the six months to June 2022, reflecting 26.1% year-on-year growth in net asset value per share.

In addition to these important updates, I wrote on earnings from MiX Telematics, Libstar and Quilter. We also saw operational updates from some of the mining groups, along with the latest in the soap opera that is Nutritional Holdings. Read Ghost Bites here.

Ghost Stories

Ep 3 of Ghost Stories is a great discussion with Carel Nolte of EasyEquities on the behaviour of investors on the platform. By digging into the data, we unpacked stats like the most popular stocks, the use of offshore funds, flows into crypto baskets and more. This is not to be missed!

Daily market wrap with TreasuryONE

US inflation numbers moved the market, with the print for July coming in lower than expected. The market shifted away from the dollar and into other assets, like emerging market currencies. Investors are now searching for yield, arguing that US inflation has reached its peak and that the Fed will not be able to remain aggressive for the remainder of the year. The rand has been a major beneficiary of this, trading below R16.20 to the US dollar. The team notes the possibility of consolidation before seeing the rand move higher in coming days.

Linked to the inflation print, US equities rallied and treasury yields moved lower, with the 10 year yield quoted at 2.72%.

Oil prices came under pressure as oil inventories rose unexpectedly in the US in the past week. Commodities like platinum, palladium and copper traded higher.

Get ready to pick your US stocks

With a rally in equities and some hope in the market that perhaps we have bottomed out, stock picking becomes critical. This is the time to buy companies that traded lower in the market chaos, possibly even below their fair value.

This requires you to "do your own research" as the saying goes - but how? What if you've never done that before?

In Magic Markets Premium, we release a research report and podcast every week on a global stock, usually one that is listed in the US. We have recently covered companies like Alphabet, Twitter, JPMorgan, Levi's, Walgreen Boots Alliance and Electronic Arts.

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DealMakers H1 summary

The team at DealMakers has released their summary of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the first half of the year. With over R306.2 billion across 174 deals (including three that failed), there was plenty that happened. This was way up on R216.7 billion in the first half of last year. Interestingly, the number of deals fell by 25%, so the average deal has been much larger.

Read the summary here to get the full picture.

Good luck in the markets today!