Before we get into today's subject line, I want to touch on the detailed presentation that Gold Fields released yesterday. As a shareholder, I'm really hoping they are doing the right thing with this Yamana Gold deal.

Gold Fields has made it pretty clear that they are taking a long-term view here. They acknowledge the short-term cash flow dilution, with that dreaded word "synergies" making an appearance to cheer shareholders up. Sadly, every deal in history has promised "synergies" and most of them have failed to deliver them.

Ultimately, this transaction comes down to a need to address long-term production metrics. Gold Fields expects a decline in production from FY24 onwards in its current portfolio of mines. Through Yamana, Gold Fields would be buying strong mines with exploration opportunities in appealing jurisdictions in the Americas. In the second h alf of this decade, Gold Fields hopes to realise an average reduction in costs of USD100/oz. When you consider that the gold price appears to go sideways despite conditions of war, famine, general economic destruction and Elon Musk having babies with half of the US, it's important to bring costs down in order to generate returns.

Along with important further information on Gold Fields, this morning's edition of Ghost Bites includes updates from Capital & Regional Plc, Renergen, Orion Minerals and even Pembury Lifestyle Group, a company that is guaranteed to make you feel better about your day no matter how terrible it was.

With that out the way, you may be wondering about that subject line. This morning, Ghost Grad Kreeti Panday tells the story of Imbalie Beauty and how the listed vehicle has found its way into the hands of B&B Media, leading to it being renamed Buka Investments. It makes for compelling reading, demonstrating the risks all entrepreneurs take and how even listed companies have no guarantee of being successful. We now have to wait and see which "fashion" assets Buka will become the proud owner of. At least this is effectively a new business on the JSE for investors to consider, even if the actual mechanics are to reverse assets into an existing listed shell!

In case you missed it yesterday, Ghost Grad Jordan Theron took a look at major international company news stories. He touched on Ford's performance against the backdrop of US auto industry sales, latest earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Company, Berkshire Hathaway's investment in Occidental Petroleum, Costco's sales numbers for June and Twitter's challenges with Elon.

Moving on to currencies, the US dollar has continued to sweep the rest away, with the rand trading at R17.05. The team at TreasuryONE has been reminding us for a while now that this is due to recession fears, not our own issues like lack of electricity (though this doesn't help of course). The US dollar could even achieve parity against the Euro in coming weeks! Gold has come all the way down to $1,738 per ounce, which certainly talks to my earlier point about the painful performance of this met al. The copper price is also heading south, seen as a leading indicator of economic downturns.

There's still time to register for the exciting webinar this Thursday at 9am with Andre Cilliers, Currency Strategist at TreasuryONE. In "Recession, depression and the insane petrol price: what does this mean for the rand?" we will gain some clarity over the wild macroeconomic ride that our currency has been on lately. I personally can't wait for this event and I highly recommend that you register at this link>>>

To give you something insightful and potentially highly profitable to listen to today, don't f orget Episode 83 of Magic Markets. Harry Scherzer from Future Forex joined us to talk about crypto arbitrage, probably the only way you could've made money from crypto this year. With the ability to generate lovely returns by simply making use of your foreign investment allowance, this is a podcast that everyone should listen to.

Have a great Tuesday!