Market Scorecard

US shares rose for a fourth day on Tuesday amid optimism that Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. Peace talks are underway, and the Russian delegates are under pressure.

All sub-sectors of the S&P 500 gained except for energy. The Nasdaq continued in a similar vein, with Apple rising for an 11th straight day, its longest winning streak since 2003. That's very good news for Vestact clients, since Apple is our largest and most widely-owned holding.

In company news, internet subscription service OnlyFans has held talks with a number of "blank cheque" companies, also known as SPACS, about a merger to take it public. Elsewhere, Robinhood closed up 24.2% after the online brokerage said it would extend stock trading hours for users in an attempt to combat slowing growth.

Overall, the JSE All-share closed up 0.78%, the S&P 500 gained 1.23%, and the Nasdaq rose by a solid 1.84%.

Our 10c Worth

One Thing, From Paul

It's amazing what some people will pay for what they regard as an "asset". I was thinking this when reading Bright's comments yesterday, about hundreds of millions of US Dollars flowing into the Bitcoin market in the last few weeks.

I regard all cryptocurrencies as "fake internet money". I would not put one cent of my family's savings into that nonsense. And don't get me started on NFTs of "apes". If you don't know what an "NFT" is, the acronym stands for "non-functioning testicle". Ok, I'm joking.

In other strange news, I see that Christie's is trying to sell a massive white, egg-shaped diamond at auction for $30 million.

The 228-carat, pear-shaped diamond is about the size of a chicken's egg and was mined about 20 years ago here in South Africa, but is only now coming up for public sale.

The sales guy from Christie's had this to say: "If they'd like to wear this stone in public, a necklace would be the most logical vehicle. This is not going on a ring, I can tell you that much."

Byron's Beats

This is not investment advice, but it may make your life better. It also involves a stock we own for clients. Last night I accidentally stumbled onto the Disney website and a big sign popped up saying that Disney + is coming to South Africa on the 18th May. The product will cost R119 a month or R1 190 a year. So basically three coffees a month.

If you have young kids (I have three, four years-old and younger) or enjoy the magical world of Disney, then this is great news. Animated children's movies are a parent's dream! Remember too that Disney owns Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, 20th Century, Fox, ABC, ESPN and most importantly, National Geographic. I am not sure if these will all be part of the library from the start, but eventually they will.

We really are spoilt for choice these days.

Michael's Musings

Income inequality is always a hot topic. I find it very interesting to hear people's perspectives on how wealth should be distributed. But what is rich and how much do you need to earn to fall into the top 5% of society?

In my GIBS MBA class, pre-Covid, 70 of us were discussing solutions to solve South Africa's ills. Some of the class favoured taxing the rich more, and using the money to increase social welfare programs. That sounds good at first glance: take more money from people who have a lot, and use it to build houses and infrastructure for those who are poor. Our lecturer asked, 'who are the rich?'. In an MBA class, most of the participants are in senior positions and fall into the top tax brackets; so they are the rich. Unsurprisingly, those in favour of increasing taxes didn't want to pay more tax themselves.

In the graph below, people in a US survey assumed that income inequality was significantly worse than it is. They thought 10% of the population earned more than $1 million a year and 35% earned less than $25 000 a year, but the actual numbers were only 0.5% and 18%, respectively.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Bright's Banter

Paul is going to love this story. The Ronin Bridge connects multiple blockchains, and it has just been revealed that hackers stole about $590 million in one of the largest crypto industry attacks ever. According to Ronin, the hackers took home around 173 000 Ether and 25.5 million USD Coins in just two transactions during this virtual stick up.

Computers known as nodes operated by Axie Infinity maker Sky Mavis and the Axie DAO that support the bridge, which is a piece of software that lets people convert tokens into ones that can be utilised on the Ronin network, were attacked. Crypto bros are quickly learning that having a valuable asset comes with a massive responsibility to protect it.

This security breach happened on 23rd March, but was only discovered yesterday. End-to-end security is still a big issue in the cryptocurrency industry and until this is sorted, the networks remain vulnerable to all sorts of cybercrimes.

Linkfest, Lap It Up

100 years ago, Johannesburg was in turmoil. When the dust settled after the 1922 Rand Strike, 112 people were dead and a further 337 wounded - Take a drive and see the sites associated with the 1922 Rand Revolt.

Patrick Collison, the CEO and co-founder of Stripe, has an interesting hobby. The Irish billionaire curates a list of examples of what happens when people collaborate with a single audacious goal in mind. These vary from the Apollo 8 mission to the construction of the Eiffel Tower - People quickly accomplishing ambitious things together.

Signing Off

The MSCI Asia-Pacific rose for a second trading day, lifted by shares in Hong Kong, mainland China and South Korea. Equities fell in Japan as the yen rose off a six-year low.

US equity futures are slightly lower in early trade. The Rand is around the R14.50 mark against the US Dollar. As a matter of interest, the Rand was also at this level back in November 2015.

Sent to you by Team Vestact.