vestact posted: " Market Scorecard Yesterday, US markets were on fire. The tech-heavy Nasdaq even managed to clinch a new all-time high as investors cheered the full FDA-approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. We started the week on a very high note! I"
Yesterday, US markets were on fire. The tech-heavy Nasdaq even managed to clinch a new all-time high as investors cheered the full FDA-approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. We started the week on a very high note!
In company news, ride-hailing companies came under pressure after a low-level California judge said that the ballot measure that deemed that drivers are independent contractors, definitely not employees, is somehow "unconstitutional". However, by some miracle, Uber shares closed up 2.7%. Elsewhere, Microsoft rallied to a new record high after revealing plans to hike the price on some Office 365 subscriptions, which will result in a decent bump in revenues.
Yesterday, the JSE All-share closed up 1.24%, the S&P 500 closed up 0.85%, and the Nasdaq closed up 1.55%.
Our 10c Worth
Bright's Banter
Bidcorp said late last week that it has uncovered a serious fraud in its Chinese subsidiary and has to delay its results to quantify the appropriate accounting write-downs. The fraud was found in a subsidiary called Miumi, part of the food division of its Angliss Greater China business. It came to light in June thanks to internal surveillance and control processes.
"It is apparent that this fraud has been going on since about 2016 and has involved the manipulation of accounts receivables, prepayments, and the misappropriation of inventories, the result of which these balances have been progressively overstated for the past six years," said Bidcorp in a statement.
The company estimates that this will result in impairments of around R501 million in receivables and prepayments, another R202 million in inventory write-downs, and R36 million in unrecorded liabilities. The company believes some of it can be recovered from insurance, perpetrators, and other third parties involved in this scheme.
The share price of Bidcorp dropped last week on the news, but has held up fairly well since then. A detailed forensic report is being prepared by Ernst & Young. Individuals and minority shareholders involved in this scheme have been suspended or fired on the spot. We are long-term investors in Bidcorp, so this is very disappointing. We continue to watch Bidcorp very closely.
One Thing, From Paul
I'm a fan of Barcelona football club, and a shareholder of Amazon, so I'm feeling slightly conflicted. As you know, Leo Messi just quit the club and signed with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). He's expected to make his debut in their French League-1 fixture away at Reims on Sunday, 29 August.
In unrelated news, Amazon surprised the sporting world last month when it took over French soccer broadcasting rights. So, if you are in France, the only way to legally watch home football on TV is through an Amazon Prime membership and an add-on sports package.
This was seen as a risky move after the collapse of the previous broadcasting contract held by Spain's Mediapro. Amazon does not have much experience with live sports and they secured the rights at a steep discount. Messi's move to France is a huge win for Amazon!
Of course, Amazon plans to convert PSG soccer fans into online shoppers. Well played, and good luck to them. Mind you, if PSG face Barca in the Champions League, I'll still be rooting for the Blaugrana.
Byron's Beats
A streaming site is only as good as its content. That's why Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney are spending billions of Dollars on content creation.
There are now over two million paid video producers on the site. If you also include production helpers, that's many millions of jobs that did not exist ten years ago. These incentives, of course, keep up the quality on the Youtube channel. Aspirant creators make magic for free, while they build up a following.
Throw in Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter and gaming, these companies are all competing for your time. As we become more efficient at work, we should have more time on our hands. Or will we?
Michael's Musings
Last week Elon Musk unveiled Tesla's latest product, a humanoid robot called the Tesla Bot. Musk says the robot is an extension of their cars, which are already semi-autonomous robots. Elon expects there to be a Tesla Bot prototype ready next year sometime. I wouldn't hold him to that deadline because Tesla regularly miss them, but even if the bot is a few years late, it is still very futuristic. This is another example of Musk and his team designing products today for future decades ahead.
The Tesla Bot is being designed to do human drudge work, freeing us to do more exciting things with our days. The implication is that at some point in our future, all the labour intensive, boring and dangerous work will be done by robots. That sounds like good news for those in the labour force with advanced skills, but not so great for the unskilled. Addressing that topic, Musk says he expects some form of universal basic income to be implemented, funded through the profits generated by an army of robots.
If you have watched iRobot or Terminator, and are concerned about robots taking over, don't worry. Tesla has designed these robots to be easily overpowered by a human and if needs be, you can simply run away from them. Sounds good? We can start to worry when robots are designing and building other robots.
Linkfest, Lap It Up
A Swiss supercomputer took 108 days and nine hours to set a new record for the longest rendition of pi. The computer generated pi to 62.8 trillion figures. For most of us it will still remain at 3.14 - Swiss researchers declare new record for exact pi figure.
Rapper Travis Scott's CACTI Spike Seltzer brand launched a college ambassador program. Selected students will earn $2000, CACTI merchandise, bonus incentives and more - Travis Scott launches CACTI Seltzer scheme at Colleges.
Signing Off
Asian markets are up again this morning in what will be the best two-day rally since February, thanks to a rebound in Chinese tech companies. JD.com shares soared after the e-commerce giant produced analyst-beating earnings.
US futures continue to be upbeat in early trade. The Rand is slowly dusting itself off and is now trading around at R15.13 against the US Dollar. We feel better already!
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