Welcome to Friday! As we sign off on this week and look towards a new one, make sure that the next webinar with TreasuryONE is in your diary. This one is completely different. Instead of a prepared discussion, the TreasuryONE market experts have made themselves available for a fireside discussion. In other words: bring your questions and ask them! This can be about the rand, the rate cycle, the South African economy or commodities. This is an incredibly rare opportunity and you should not miss out. Register at this link for this online fireside chat next Thursday at 9:30am.

Here's the stuff that I don't want you to miss from this week:

• Nedbank released results on Tuesday and I got to interview CFO M ike Davis about them, with the transcript included here with the results.
• For those who are curious about bond ETFs (a really interesting product alongside equity ETFs, particularly in an environment of high rates), the latest Ghost Stories podcast with Siyabelela Nomoyi of Satrix will be an invaluable use of your time.
• Entrepreneurs: don't spend years building a business only to discover that you can't sell the thing! Mike Finger went through this experience and now helps small business owners avoid the same outcome. I had a great discussion with him on the bizval podcast.
• Learn more about retail stocks and the different business models both in South Africa and globally by listening to the latest episode of Magic Markets.

And of course, Ghost Wrap continues to bring you the easiest way to stay up to date with local company news. Now released twice a week to make the insights even fresher, the latest episode covers AngloGold, Pan African Resources and Impala Platinum from the mining industry. I also looked at Sappi and Mondi, as well as blowout numbers from Mpact. Standard Bank and Spur also came in with very strong results. Brought to you by Mazars, you need just 5 minutes to catch up on all these stories here>>>

When does the bleeding stop at Cashbuild?

South Africans don't have much spare money at the moment. People aren't adding rooms to their existing homes or building new ones. Infrastructure spending is hardly our strong point in South Africa, as poor PPC will attest to. In this environment, being Cashbuild just isn't a fun experience at all. There really isn't much that the management team can do about it to be honest, as demand simply isn't there.

There are other companies that are doing very well at the moment, so this really is a stock picking environment where you need to understand the intricacies of each business model. We saw great trading statements come through from ADvTECH and CA Sales Holdings yesterday. We also saw a big positive step from Capital & Regional with a plan that is practically unheard of these days on the local market: an equity capital raise for an acquisition! The fund seems to have found a well-priced opportunity for a shopping centre in Scotland. When you see the yield at which they are buying that property, you may find yourself asking some very tough questions about valuations you've seen elsewhere in the market.

Finally, we saw upda tes from Life Healthcare and Montauk Renewables as well. Get everything you need to know at this link>>>

Friday means one thing: summaries from DealMakers

The team at DealMakers does a great job of making sure that you don't miss out on important corporate news every week. As usual, the summaries of local M&A, local corporate finance and deals in Africa are available.

For some added spice this week, the team has also included the analysis of M&A in the first half of the year. There are some truly shocking year-on-year movements that tell a story. Not a pretty story, either. Inform yourself about the environment around you and make very sure that you read this article.

US inflation in line with expectations

US inflation for July came in at 3.2%, ahead of June's rate of 3.0%. Core inflation was 4.7%, just below the projected 4.8%. Before you get too excited, the market anticipates inflation to climb once again in August, with forecasts from fixing swaps indicating an estimated 3.6% for August's CPI. Latest PMI surveys suggest that we might have just witnessed the minimum point for core inflation this year.

TreasuryONE notes that the possibility of another interest rate hike by the Fed before the end of the year is still on the table. The market may also start factoring in slower and postponed rate reductions.

The rand had a favourable day but is still trading at over R18.80, Gold stabilised around the $1,916 mark and oil was unchanged.

Remember to register for the fi reside chat with TreasuryONE next Thursday - places are limited!

Have a great weekend