If your company is focused on agriculture, manufacturing, mining, or commercial property and is looking for solar financing, Jaltech's solar financing solution offers benefits including 100% project finance, a deal turnaround of 2 to 3 weeks and all costs being tax-deductible. To reach out to the team, follow this link>>>

Get out those earphones

Podcasts are a fantastic way to learn while you work, run or just take a break somewhere at home. Here are a few for you to enjoy:

• Ghost Wrap gives you a fast-paced summ ary on the local market, with the latest edition bringing news on Bidcorp, Bidvest, MultiChoice, Argent Industrial, Renergen, Capital Appreciation and The Foschini Group. Ghost Wrap is brought to you by Mazars and you'll find it here>>>
• For something sweet, the latest bizval podcast with Mark Sack of Sally Williams Fine Foods delivers great insight into the FMCG industry and the journey of building a household brand. There was also a discussion on exporting products from South Africa. Learn with bizval here>>>
• In Magic Markets, Alex Weiss of Trive South Africa joined us to discuss five Chinese tech stocks, including usual suspect Tencent. Enjoy it here>>>

And if you have time today to watch a video recording or even to just listen to it in the background, the emigration webinar that I presented alongside TreasuryONE last week was popular. For help with this decision and the related mechanics, watch the recording here>>>

Get out those charts

If y ou fancy a read today rather than a listen, then you've got two research pieces from Trive South Africa that you could sink your teeth into. The first is on US tech firm Dell Technologies (click here) and the second is on Chinese platform giant JD.com (click here). Both include a mix of technical and fundamental analysis.

Something I already knew: Purple is a good colour

I can't fault Purple Group's na me, that's for sure. As the colour choice of your favourite ghost, it was good to see the group achieve an oversubscribed rights offer. This is the capital needed for the international expansion of EasyEquities, the business that truly gave South African retail investors a chance to take part in the market. Sanlam followed its rights in EasyEquities itself and was willing to underwrite the raise at Purple level, but that underwrite wasn't needed in the end because of excess applications. All eyes will now be on the group to deliver the international growth story.

Other big news on the market yesterday included Thungela's results, which show what happens when bad commodity pricing happens to good people. Single-commodity stocks are ultra risky, with profits quite easily moving by 50% or more in a given year. The focus is on the cash pile and how much of it will go to shareholders as a dividend.

Aside from solid numb ers at Alexander Forbes, Lighthouse and Vukile, there was also the confirmation of M&A rumours at Telkom and Glencore's latest play for Teck in Canada. AEEI reported significant losses. You can get all these updates with a single click in Ghost Bites this morning>>>

Oil keeps dropping

As an enthusiast of cars with too many cylinders, I was very pleased to see TreasuryONE's note that Brent Crude dropped by over 3%. This relates to concerns over a global recession which isn't good news, but my view is that South Africa is a net beneficiary of lower oil prices even if it is due to global economic jitters. It is worth noting that Russian crude exports have returned to pre-war levels. Other commodities also had a tough day as cautious sentiment weighed on prices.

In currency news, the rand inched closer to what TreasuryONE entertainingly calls "pre-Simonstown Sage" levels. The currency briefly touched the R18.50 mark, giving relief to local importers and making me feel good about bringing some rands home in the R19s. My joy may be short-lived depending on what happens at the FOMC meeting and in the release of US CPI data.

If you would like to understand more about the key issues that central banks are looking at this week, read this excellent article from TreasuryONE>>>

Have a great day!