Local company news:


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Well, that was a monstrous day of news. Sometimes, I scroll through SENS and realise that there isn't much chance of a rest that night, with many stories to work through. Yesterday was such a day.

Woolworths is an important one, with the recovery in Fashion, Beauty and Home (FBH) suffering a significant wobbly as the company struggled to get stock at the end of last year. Blaming the ports falls flat I'm afraid, as almost every other listed clothing retailer had an excellent end to 2023. At least the Woolworths Food business is starting to show some growth in volumes again, after a few years of Woolworths having to be more aggressive on price.

Sadly, Cashbuild has no good news for shareholders in terms of improvement. For the first six weeks of the new year, revenue looks flat vs. last year. This put even more pressure on the share price.

It's not all bad news of course. Harmony Gold just signed off on an exceptional year where they really made the most of a stronger gold price. Standard Bank is also doing well in this environment, posting great earnings growth.

Other updates include numbers from AECI, African Rainbow Minerals, KAP, Primary Health and Texton. At MultiChoice, the TRP has ruled that Canal+ must make a mandatory offer, so there's some interesting application of the law there for the takeover enthusiasts. The Proventure joint venture has finally fallen over at Kibo and they have an alternative funding plan. Finally, Life Healthcare has confimed the dividend payable from the Alliance Medical Group disposal.

This doesn't even include all the smaller stories covered in Little Bites!

If you want to have any chance at all of staying on top of JSE news releases, then Ghost Bites is the only place where you'll get everything in one click. 

Get all the details in Ghost Bites here>>>

There's a brand new episode of the Ghost Wrap podcast for you to enjoy, made possible by Mazars. In the time it takes to drink your coffee, you can get the latest on NEPI Rockcastle, Vukile, Italtile, Bidcorp, Spar and Pick n Pay. Get it here>>>

And for the fans of my radio segment in Namibia, the latest chat covered Motus, Sasol, Libstar and City Lodge. Get it here>>>

Currencies, commodities and rates: TreasuryONE Market Update

A strong day for the dollar means a rough day for the rand and other emerging market currencies, with the local currency almost testing the R19.30 level. US GDP numbers then came in weaker than expected (3.2% vs. 3.3%) and the dollar retreated slightly, giving the rand a small breather.

Brent Crude moved above $84.00 per barrel as the market is digesting further supply cuts by the OPEC+ countries. Although this could well be the catalyst to get Brent Crude out of the tight recent trading range, it is back below $84.00 this morning.

To add to the unfortunate news for South Africa, the PGMs took strain as well.

If you would like to watch the recording of the panel discussion around the Budget Speech, then you'll find it on the TreasuryONE YouTube channel here.

Key indicators: USD/ZAR R19.25; US 10-year 4.27%; Gold $2,0235; Platinum ZAR R16,984; Brent Crude $83.55

International company news:


Alphabet (Google) is doing nothing to improve my view of the company, with CEO Sundar Pichai telling employees that the Gemini blunders are unacceptable. They are more than just unacceptable, frankly. I'm just not sure that Pichai can distance himself from the product like this. After all, if he's not paying attention to the AI initiatives, what exactly is he doing all day?

In stark contrast, we have Tim Cook at Apple talking about the company investing significantly in generative AI. He has teased a potentially major announcement later this year. I wouldn't bet against Apple here, especially as they need another major growth engine in the group after riding on the success of the iPhone for the past 17 years.

And finally, on the topic of AI, Salesforce beat estimates on both revenue and earnings per share, reporting a net income of $1.45 billion vs. a loss of $98 million in the comparable quarter. The share price is up 17% year-to-date.

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