You have a few hours left to register for Unlock the Stock with Capital Appreciation and Spear REIT, scheduled for midday today and brought to you by A2X. Put on your equity analyst hat for an hour by registering for the event here>>>

To see what this is all about, you can now watch the recording of the latest Unlock the Stock event that featured PBT Group and a discussion on the latest results and strategic outlook. Find it here>>>

Burberry, not BlackBerry

Technological gimmicks come and go. Luxury goods groups don't. Steeped in tradition, most of them seem to make decent money over the long-term, although there's still room for significant underperformance and outperformance in the sector.

With Burberry releasing a sales update and Richemont taking a knock this week, Dominique Olivier and I took a look at the world of luxury and what it all means. As is always the case in Ghost Global, we leaned heavily on the excellent research library in Magic Markets Premium, something I'm very proud of.

Read the latest Ghost Global article here>>>

Don't miss these:

With another week nearly behind us, make sure you are up to date with recent opportunities to learn:

• Use your coffee break wisely and listen to Ghost Wrap, brought to you by Mazars and featuring my views on the latest news from Bell Equipment, Invicta, Sasol, Tharisa, Bytes Technology, Absa, Accelerate Property Fund and RMB Holdings. Find it here>>>
• You'll need more time than just a coffee break for Magic Markets, but it's worth it. Listen to our discussion with Wandile Sihlobo on the local agriculture industry and what some of the major drivers are. Episode 133 of Magic Markets is available here>>>
• In the latest article from Satrix, you can learn about the various ETFs that the group offers to investors who are looking for sustainable / ESG-themed investment products. This ranges from the MSCI World ESG ETF through to the Healthcare Innovation ETF and Smart City Infrastructure ETF. There's some good stuff in this article about ETFs in general. Learn more here>>>
  

Pick n Pain

You only need to ask around at the braai or look around you on the roads to notice the relative outperformance of Shoprite Check ers vs. Pick n Pay. The green scooters are everywhere and the performance of Checkers has even forced Woolworths Food to become more competitively priced over time, possibly helping to stem the tide of emigration. Not semigration, mind you, as we have plenty of Woolies stores in Cape Town.

Yes, Pick n Pay is a group in trouble. The performance in a chain like Boxer has flattered the group numbers, with the core Pick n Pay grocery business struggling to compete. This has become even more obvious in the latest numbers, where volumes are sharply down as Pick n Pay had to be less aggressive on pricing in order to protect margins.

This update is exactly why I remain bearish on South African retail overall, as I discussed in a recent CNBC interview.

Other important updates yesterday included detailed numbers from Accelerate Property Fund (where the distribution is a thing of the past and the balance sheet is going to cause some grey hairs for investors) and an acquisition by Super Group of a logistics company in the UK.

As always, I do the hard yards of reading SENS so that you don't have to. Get all the updates in just one click with Ghost Bites>>>

Range-bound trading for the rand

Ahead of the MPC meeting later today, the rand has hovered below the R18.00 handle. TreasuryONE notes that local inflation for June came in lower than market expectations, but this shouldn't have much effect on the expected 25 basis points hike by the SARB.

News headlines on Bloomberg confirmed that President Putin will not attend the BRICS conference in person, so that does take some geopolitical risk away from the rand. We can all be thankful for video calling as an alternative. The local currency didn't really respond to this news, but it does help limit the near-term risks.

Next week's FOMC meeting is likely to deliver the next round of news headlines for the dollar, providing us with a new direction in the currency space.

With that, I wish you a productive Thursday!