Market scorecard
Yesterday, the JSE had a good day thanks to strong advances from our precious metal miners. In the US, the market started the day with good gains, but by mid-afternoon, those faded. The change in sentiment seemed to be linked to inflation worries, as rising Middle-East tensions pushed oil prices above $90 a barrel.
In company news, McDonald's announced that it was buying out its franchise partner in Israel because sales around the region were falling. They prefer to be seen as apolitical, and focus on their staff and customers. Yesterday's biggest movers in the S&P500 were two food producers, Conagra Brands and Lamb Weston. Very obscure, so we will move right along.
Yesterday the JSE All-share closed up 1.72%, but the S&P 500 sagged by 1.23%, and the Nasdaq flopped by 1.40%. Poor!
Our 10c worth
One thing, from Paul
Here's the best piece of life advice I read this week, a trick you can deploy when speaking to boring people. Ask follow-up questions. That's where you ask, "why?" And after that "why?", again.
Ryan Chapman (pictured below), author of the recent novel "The Audacity", rattled off a great list of 100 Tips That May (or May Not) Improve Your Next Novel.
Here is tip number 65. "If you meet someone who seems boring, ask them follow-up questions. Nearly everyone is four follow-ups away from divulging something insane, memorable, or true."
Byron's beats
I bought my MacBook Pro 15-inch in June 2019. I was in New York at the time and needed an upgrade. The price I got at the famous 5th Avenue iStore was slightly cheaper because there were no South African import taxes to absorb. However, there was a New York state tax which made the savings only very slight.
It is nearly five years later and this incredible device feels as good as new, other than a few faded keys. The battery life is also not as good as it used to be. But when I think back on all the tasks that this Mac has helped me to complete over the years it's pretty impressive. Around 800 Byron's beats and countless US trades have been churned out on this machine.
Modern technology is a wonderful thing, but we often take it for granted. Long live Apple and their wonderful devices.
Michael's musings
In October, Uber and Alphabet's Waymo announced a partnership in Phoenix, a US city, where riders could opt-in to be driven around by Waymo's self-driving Jaguar I-PACEs. Uber's long-term goal is to fully integrate self-driving cars across all of their urban operations. Uber did stress in the partnership announcement that the number of human drivers on its platform would continue to grow for a very long time.
The partnership has now been expanded to include Uber Eats deliveries. Uber says that when the autonomous vehicle arrives, you'll receive an in-app notification to take your phone with you to unlock the vehicle and collect your items.
Having an expensive Jaguar I-PACE deliver food isn't really economical. Uber seems to be gathering data now for when self-driving technology expands to small vehicles. The whole partnership sounds cool.
Linkfest, lap it up
Will Hyperloops revolutionise urban mobility? A 420-metre-long forked test track has just been opened in the Netherlands - Europe's longest hyperloop test track revives futuristic tube transport hype.
The world is heavily reliant on oil. Despite harsh sanctions, Russia was still the world's second biggest producer in 2023 - Where oil comes from.
Signing off
After the slump in the US last night, Asian markets are in the red across the board this morning.
We will be paying close attention to the monthly release of US non-farm payrolls and unemployment data this afternoon. If the US economy looks very strong, then the Fed doesn't have any incentive to drop interest rates in the near term. For now, US futures are actually pointing towards a positive open.
The Rand is at $/R18.73 this morning.
It's been an easy 4-day work week. Take the next two days off!