Tightening our belts

Good Morning Voornaam,

And that's a wrap - Ghost Wrap! I get it. You are dealing with all the pressures of the day job and the family, trying hard to occasionally even make it to gym. You don't have time and that's ok, because you're hustling. I make it a lot easier to stay on top of the most interesting news on the JSE with the Ghost Wrap podcast, a weekly whirlwind of JSE updates brought to you by Mazars. In the latest episode, I covered Murray & Roberts, Aspen, Cashbuild, Caxton & CTP, Investec Property Fund, Woolworths, MultiChoice and Sasfin. And best of all, it takes just 8 minutes to get these insights>>>

Tightening our belts. Literally.

Fans of carbohydrates, look away now! If you've felt like your favourite baked goodies have become more expensive, that's because they have. Input cost pressures have made it impossible for bakeries to operate without pricing increases, evidenced by the latest RCL Foods numbers. The company talks about "controlling the controllables" in this article and I've also commented on the numbers in Ghost Bites. Volumes in the baking business are lower because of pricing increases, so we are all tightening our belts both figuratively and literally as we buy less food.

At least the festive season still saw some calorific action, with Bakers Choice Assorted as one of the highlights in AVI's numbers. Sadly, the I&J fishing business suffered a sharp drop in profitability that somewhat ruined the group result.

But the star of the show yesterday was undoubtedly Bidvest, with the industrials giant rallying over 15% based on something that they already told us back in October. The market just doesn't read SENS properly.

Make sure that you do read SENS properly by using Ghost Bites every d ay. In addition to updates on these companies, I covered African Rainbow Minerals, Hulamin, Jasco, MAS, Metrofile, Nampak, STADIO and Trellidor. Read it here>>>

A big week of US data

The rand is unlikely to care much about the cabinet reshuffle. Frankly, the only cabinet reshuffler that I have any love for is my ginger cat, Bentley!

As TreasuryONE highlights, this week is a big week of data and that is likely to drive the di rection of the markets. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver testimony and take questions from lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday, with an expectation that he will echo fellow central bankers in suggesting that interest rates will go higher than lawmakers anticipated. The ECB's Lagarde is also due to speak on Wednesday. The Bank of Japan also due to make an announcement this week. Finally, we have US non-farm payrolls to look forward to on Friday, an important one after a bumper print in January.

Locally, Q4 GDP data is due on Wednesday. After load shedding ravaged South African businesses in recent months, expectations aren't high.

Don't miss these!

If you're in the mood for a long-form podcast, then listen to Satrix's Nico Katzke who joined me on Ghost Stories to talk about a wide variety of market topics. For a healthy dose of "do your own research" you can enjoy the latest edition of Unlock the Stock (featuring Afrimat and Capital Appreciation) or read this article from Barry Dumas of Trive South Africa about the importance of research for retail investors.

If offshore investment opportunities get you excited, then you can learn about OrbVest's offering of US medical real estate portfolios in this article.

For equity research on global stocks, you'll be pleased to know that we will be covering Comcast this week in Magic Markets Premium, the company that has partnered with MultiChoice in delivering a streaming platform to the African market. This is a follow-on from our report on MercadoLibre last week, the eCommerce and FinTech giant in Latin America. We love bringing you interesting, insightful and varied research on that platform, with the entire library of well over 60 stocks available to you for R99/month or R990/year. Whether you are actively investing or busy with your MBA and learning more about business, there's huge value in here for you>>>

And finally, if you are interested in private dealmaking, you'll really enjoy the latest Magic Markets podcast with the UK-based team from Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management. We talked about private debt in a rising interest rate environment and the impact on property investing. If you are serious about improving your finance knowledge, this show is for you>>>

There's plenty for you to sink your teeth into this morning. Have fun!

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