Byron Beats the Streets


Our markets locally fell 0.9% as tensions in Ukraine seemed to flare and spook markets all over the world. Shots were fired between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian military which sparked fears that the situation could be getting worse. Here is the full story from Time Ukraine Sends Troops to Curb Unrest in the East.


There are 7 billion people on this planet with so many diverse cultures and religions. Throw in thousands of years of history and you are bound to get tensions. I am not trying to play down the seriousness of this matter but these things happen. They have happened in the past and they will carry on happening in the future. Markets get spooked over the short term but in the long run businesses still operate on a day to day basis as usual. Events like these include natural disasters, bank runs, defaults, dictatorships, bad weather the list goes on. And so do we, we carry on and keep calm. Humans are extremely adaptable, that is why we dominate the planet. Please remember that I am talking about this in the context of the market, not on specific scenarios which can be treacherous.


The biggest news we had from our locally listed businesses was a production report from BHP Billiton. I say locally listed instead of just local businesses because from my most recent calculations BHP get 0.81% of their profits from South Africa. Ouch, far from a local business. Michael will cover that report in detail.

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The US market bucked the trend as good earnings beats were the talk of the day. As I have mentioned before, markets are determined by under lying earnings and what the market expects these earnings to be. The S&P index gained 0.7% while the Nasdaq added 0.3%

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