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US markets cooled off yesterday after a strong rally that brought them within a whisker of all-time highs. A dip in equities broke what could have been the S&P 500's longest winning streak in 20 years. Nvidia, which had surged nearly 25% over six days, led the losses among megacap stocks, falling 2.1%. No big deal.

In company news, Johnson & Johnson is set to acquire V-Wave for $1.7 billion, to add more heart failure treatment systems to its medical technology division. Elsewhere, Bank of America dropped 2.5% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold more of its shares. Lowe's cut its full-year guidance, predicting a drop in DIY projects at your home. Lastly, Netflix reached a new intraday record, surpassing $700 per share.

Here's the final lowdown, the JSE All-share closed down 0.02%, the S&P 500 fell 0.20%, and the Nasdaq was 0.33% lower. Sad face emoji.

US markets continued to climb yesterday, extending August's rally as traders remained optimistic about potential Fed interest rate cuts. Technology stocks led the charge, and all major sectors in the S&P 500 were in the green. The index posted gains for the eighth consecutive day, marking its longest winning streak since November.

In company developments, chipmaker AMD rose 4.5% on the news that it will acquire server manufacturer ZT Systems for $4.9 billion. Palo Alto Networks ticked 1.9% higher after-hours thanks to pleasing results. By contrast, Estee Lauder had a tough day yesterday, down 2.2% after pasty quarterly numbers and a blotchy forecast, another setback for the cosmetics giant which has been in turnaround mode for a while.

At the end of the day, the JSE All-share closed up 1.18%, the S&P 500 rose 0.97%, and the Nasdaq was 1.39% higher. Good stuff.

US markets wrapped up their best week of the year on Friday, the S&P 500 gained 3.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 5%. The S&P 500 also extended its seven-day rally to 6.8% which is its strongest stretch since October 2022. As you may know, the best days on the stock market often follow hot on the heels of the worst days. This is why you need to stay fully invested.

In company news, Bayer's shares surged 10.4% after the German company scored a major victory in the ongoing cancer litigation related to its Roundup weedkiller, which it acquired by buying Monsanto in 2018. Another top performer was Bavarian Nordic, which makes an mpox vaccine. It jumped 15.6% after the World Health Organization declared a public emergency over the disease's spread in Africa.

On Friday, the JSE All-share closed up 0.73%, the S&P 500 rose 0.20%, and the Nasdaq was 0.21% higher.

US markets rose sharply yesterday after strong retail spending data was released, easing concerns about an economic slowdown. Despite marginally disappointing unemployment numbers the S&P 500 continued its rally, and has now gained 6.6% in the last six days. What a difference a week can make.

In company news, Walmart reported splendid sales numbers for the latest quarter and made positive comments about the outlook for the rest of the year, pushing the shares up 6.5%. Elsewhere, chip maker Applied Materials boosted its sales forecast but its shares dipped 3.1% after-hours. Finally, Pilgrim's Pride dropped 3.3% because some of its shareholders chickened out.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed up 1.01%, the S&P 500 rose 1.61%, and the Nasdaq goosestepped 2.34% higher. Neat!

US stocks climbed again yesterday, following an inflation report that matched expectations, reinforcing the view that the Fed will cut rates in September. The S&P 500 continued its upward trend, enjoying its fifth consecutive day of gains, the longest winning streak in over a month. Financial, energy, and tech sectors drove the rally.

In company news, privately-owned Mars raised $36 billion to fund its purchase of Kellanova, the Pringles-maker. Kellanova was up 7.7% on the news. Elsewhere, Victoria's Secret jumped 16% after the undergarment retailer hired Hillary Super as its next CEO.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed up 0.55%, the S&P 500 rose 0.38%, and the Nasdaq was 0.03% higher. We'll take that, yes sir.

US markets ended higher last night as traders gained confidence that the Federal Reserve will start to ease interest rates in September. A lower-than-expected rise in the US producer price index drove the rally. The tech sector led the gains, with standout performances from Nvidia (+6.5%), Tesla (+5.2%), Broadcom (+5.1%), and Meta (+2.4%).

According to CME data, interest-rate futures implied a 55% chance of a half-a-percentage-point cut in September. Chances of a quarter of a percentage point are much higher.

In company news, Starbucks saw its largest one-day gain ever, jumping 25% after announcing the replacement of CEO Laxman Narasimhan with Chipotle's CEO, Brian Niccol. In contrast, Chipotle's stock dropped 7.5% on the news. Meanwhile, Home Depot shares rose 1.3%, despite the company lowering its outlook for comparable store sales, citing the impact of high interest rates on home-improvement spending.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed up 0.49%, the S&P 500 rose 1.68%, and the Nasdaq charged 2.43% higher. Lovely!

Yesterday US markets fluctuated between small gains and losses, ending with mixed results. The S&P 500 lacked direction, with most major sectors declining, except for tech, energy, and utilities. The good news is that the Nasdaq has risen in four of the last five days.

In company news, Johnson & Johnson has made significant progress in its $6.5 billion plan to settle thousands of lawsuits from individuals claiming that its baby powder caused cancer. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly said it will raise $5 billion through a bond sale to finance its $3.2 billion acquisition of Morphic Holding, a company specialising in gut-drugs.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed down 1.19%, the S&P 500 was unchanged, and the Nasdaq ended 0.21% higher.

Wow, what a week. Monday started with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq falling over 3%, their worst single-day performance in a few years. The rest of the week was rather volatile as the market processed new economic and company news. At the end of the five day period, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were only down 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. In other words, much ado about nothing.

In corporate news, salad seller Sweetgreen crisped up by 33.33% after a strong earnings report coupled with forecasts of higher-than-expected sales in 2024. Elsewhere, Temu's founder Colin Huang is now China's richest man. Bloomberg ranks him as the 25th richest person in the world with a net worth of $49 billion. Huang is a former Google engineer and only started Temu in 2022!

On Thursday, the JSE All-share closed up 0.47%. On Friday the S&P 500 closed higher by 0.47%, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.51%.

Yesterday was one of those frustrating days when the market opened nicely in the green but faded to close in the red. Some weaker-than-expected earnings didn't help sentiment in an already skittish market.

In company news, the server company Super Micro dropped 20% due to contracting profit margins and slowing growth. The company also mentioned that they only expect Nvidia's new generation Blackwell GPU chips to ship in significant volumes next year, a little later than expected. Those comments resulted in Nvidia shares dropping 5%. Elsewhere, Warner Bros Discovery is down 10% in after-hours trade as it writes off $9 billion in value linked to its cable and satellite TV networks. The stock is down 72% since it merged in early 2022, not great considering that its CEO, David Zaslav, is regularly near the top of CEO compensation lists.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed up 1.18%, but the S&P 500 flopped by 0.77%, and the Nasdaq slipped 1.05% lower.

Global markets rebounded yesterday, led by Japan's Nikkei, which closed up 10.2%. There's a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty at the moment, and the financial media have been fanning the flames. One good day after a tough month doesn't mean this bout of volatility is over, so you should probably ignore the headlines for a while longer.

In company news, Kenvue, the recently spun-off retail division of J&J, closed up 15% after posting strong numbers. Elsewhere, Uber jumped 11% thanks to strong revenue growth and continued profitability. Lastly, Zoetis, the animal health company also reported strong numbers, and the stock closed up 6%.

In summary, the JSE All-share lost 0.19%, but the S&P 500 rallied by 1.04%, and the Nasdaq closed 1.03% higher. Phew!

US markets opened sharply lower yesterday, mirroring declines across the globe, before partially recovering in the afternoon. The tech-focused Nasdaq took the hardest hit, ending down 3.4% on the day. Every sector within the S&P 500 declined, with the index experiencing its steepest drop in about two years. Nothing is broken yet, so there's no need to panic. For context, the S&P 500 is only down 8.5% from its peak.

Over the past 40 years, the S&P 500 has typically experienced an average intra-year pullback of 14%. Despite these fluctuations, stocks have delivered a positive average annual return of 13% and have risen in 33 out of those 40 years, or 83% of the time. Hold the line!

In company news, Palantir jumped 12.2% in after-hours trading following strong quarterly results and an upward revision of its annual outlook, driven by high demand for its AI software. Kellanova (recently spun out of Kellogg's) snapped, crackled and popped by 16.2% on a report that the company is preparing to be acquired by fellow snack foods maker Mars. Lastly, Intel continued to slide, falling another 6.4% as it suffers the after-effects of its awful second-quarter earnings.

In the end, the JSE All-share closed down 1.19%, the S&P 500 lost 3.00%, and the Nasdaq was 3.43% lower. Could have been worse.

The US stock market selloff deepened on Friday after a weak jobs report heightened concerns that the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates at a two-decade high could lead to a more significant economic slowdown. Those concerns sparked turmoil in global trading, leading to a sharp increase in volatility and prompting investors to retreat from riskier assets.

The S&P 500 saw its worst reaction to jobs data in almost two years. The Nasdaq is down over 10% from its peak, passing the threshold that meets the definition of a correction.

In company-specific news, Nintendo's operating profit dropped a steeper-than-anticipated 71%, as consumers delayed purchases in anticipation of the upcoming launch of a new flagship video game console to succeed the Switch. In more positive news, Cloudflare jumped 6.8% on a strong beat-and-raise earnings announcement.

On Friday, the JSE All-share closed down 1.62%, the S&P 500 lost 1.84%, and the Nasdaq was 2.43% lower. Sad :(

US markets took a hit last night and bonds rallied on disappointing economic data. Unemployment claims hit an almost one-year high and US manufacturing contracted. With the next Federal Reserve meeting only in September, this bad news was taken as bad news. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq saw their biggest declines since May 2022.

In company news, Amazon slid 6.8% in late trade on a slight revenue miss and disappointing guidance for the third quarter. The good news was that AWS cloud sales exceeded all estimates. Elsewhere, Apple rose 1% after-hours as it reported excellent hardware and services revenue.

In summary, the JSE All-share closed down 1.08%, the S&P 500 gave up 1.37%, and the Nasdaq was hammered by 2.30%. Oof.

US markets made a strong comeback on the last day of July, closing out a volatile month on a high note. All three major indices opened significantly higher and maintained their gains after the Fed decided to keep interest rates steady. Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted that a rate cut could be on the table in September if inflation trends continue to improve. For the month, the S&P 500 gained 1.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq saw a slight dip of 0.8%.

In company news, Meta Platforms jumped 7.2% in after-hours trading after the social media giant reported better-than-expected sales. Arm Holdings, however, fell 10.5% as the chipmaker decided not to raise its annual forecast, sparking concerns about its growth potential. Meanwhile, Nvidia surged 12.8% following a bullish recommendation from JP Morgan analysts.

At the close, the JSE All-share closed up 1.93%, the S&P 500 added 1.58%, and the Nasdaq jumped 2.64% higher. What a strong rebound!

US markets dipped on Tuesday as investors shifted focus from tech giants to smaller companies. The Nasdaq has now dropped 9% from its peak. Major tech stocks like Nvidia (-7.0%), Qualcomm (-6.7%), Broadcom (-4.5%), and Tesla (-4.1%) were among the biggest losers. Ouch.

In company news, Microsoft shares slipped 2.7% after-hours as its cloud unit Azure grew slightly slower than expected (still, by 29% year-on-year, very good). Elsewhere, Merck shares slid 9.8% after the drugmaker lowered its earnings forecast for the year. Finally, Procter & Gamble shares declined 4.8% following a sloppy sales report from the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers.

At the end of the day, the JSE All-share rose 0.23%, but the S&P 500 lost 0.50%, and the Nasdaq stumbled by 1.28%.