vestact posted: " Market Scorecard US markets continued to march higher on Wednesday as finance, entertainment and manufacturing stocks firmed. This came on news that the US government may approve another $1 trillion infrastructure bill as soon as September. Loc"
US markets continued to march higher on Wednesday as finance, entertainment and manufacturing stocks firmed. This came on news that the US government may approve another $1 trillion infrastructure bill as soon as September.
Locally, the Nigerian tax tribunal has ordered Multichoice to pay 50% of a trumped-up $4.4 billion tax bill before the matter can be heard on appeal. This is arguably the largest tax penalty proposed in Nigerian history. It's more than Multichoice's revenue in the whole of Africa. These guys are d4, ninnyhammer, snollygoster trash!
At the close of trade, the JSE All-share was unchanged, the S&P 500 closed up 0.22%, and the Nasdaq closed up 0.15%.
Our 10c Worth
Bright's Banter
Tim Cook is celebrating his 10th anniversary as CEO of Apple. He took over from co-founder Steve Jobs on 24 August, 2011. Jobs died soon after from pancreatic cancer; RIP.
At the time, people worried that Cook was a boring operations guy, who lacked "vision". Well, Apple's operational excellence continued, but the critics were dead wrong about the company's creativity.
Under Cook's tenure, the Apple Watch was launched which has outsold any other timepiece in history, by miles. Apple Music and the Services business grew out of the App Store and these units now contribute a third of earnings.
The infographic below shows how Apple has grown under Tim Cook. Thank you Tim Apple, very cool!
Yesterday big tech companies met with officials at the White House and committed billions of dollars towards cybersecurity initiatives. As the world digitises and we become more connected online, we become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Data theft and the interruption of crucial systems can impact millions of people. Governments around the world are pushing both private and public operators to protect their data.
Here at Vestact we like investing in sectors that make the world a better place. Businesses that do that often get ongoing regulatory support. Think of Tesla which earns carbon credits or Visa which benefits from initiatives to promote electronic payments and eradicate cash.
Cybersecurity is vital and will attract near-universal support. That is why we have earmarked CrowdStrike as an exciting addition to Vestact portfolios.
One Thing, From Paul
In the business world, you win some and you lose some. Success looks easy, but there is a lot of luck involved. Say you were in the business of making masks, alcohol for hand sanitiser or mRNA vaccines and then out of the blue, Covid-19 happens. You make mad coin!
The opposite can also be true. We all know people who owned restaurants, conference facilities or travel businesses that have been hammered. Just bad luck, really.
Here is another example of bad luck in business. The so-called Indian coronavirus variant was (correctly in my view) renamed the Delta variant by the WHO. That one has gone about the world, and is now the dominant strain. Thank goodness the South African version of the virus (sorry, the Beta variant) seems to have petered out.
One organisation is not so thrilled about this thing being called the Delta; US company Delta Airlines. Here is their CEO commenting on the issue.
Michael's Musings
Last week I wrote about Eskom embracing the future of energy creation by focusing on solar and wind generation at the expense of coal. This week, the Mineral Resources & Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, expressed his concerns about the plan. He argues that more jobs are associated with the coal industry than with the renewable industry. Given our dreadful unemployment rate at the moment, we do need to keep one eye on job creation.
Mantashe feels that converting coal power stations into gas turbines, fuelled by Mozambique gas is a better solution. This would give the economy more time to adjust to pending changes, and gas is much cleaner than coal.
When it comes to making massive strategic decisions like this, it is important to think clearly about what will give us the cheapest and most reliable energy. Two fallacy traps that policymakers regularly fall into are, the broken window fallacy and the sunk cost fallacy. I won't explain each concept here, but in summary, if green energy is significantly cheaper in the long term, we should go with that.
Gas could be a useful transitionary fuel, but as renewable costs drop in the next decade, that is the way to go. It even makes sense to build and operate solar plants, pay the costs of mothballing coal-fired power stations, and remunerate retrenched coal workers. The minister should stop being obstructionist, and run the numbers.
In 2019 Facebook launched a digital currency called Libra. Due to political pushback, they had to scale back their ambitions, but it looks like they are finally ready to enter the payments market - Facebook says ready to launch digital wallet.
Tim Cook's 4 am starts are the stuff of legends. A new interview opens with an explanation of why he's at his desk by this time - Apple's Tim Cook on the digital future.
Signing Off
Asian markets are softer this morning, snapping a three-day rally. Disappointing!
Today, Fed officials will attend their annual gabfest called "Jackson Hole". That's a lovely place in the US state of Wyoming, but this event will be virtual. Sounds awful. We also expect to see the release of US monthly GDP numbers.
US equity futures are trading lower in early trade. The Rand is a whisker below R15 to the US Dollar. Let's get the day underway.
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