vestact posted: " Market Scorecard US stocks rallied overnight, which was encouraging given that last week was the worst since March 2020. All three major indexes advanced, a welcome reprieve from watching stocks go in one direction in recent times. Investors are w" Vestact - Money with a dash of funny
US stocks rallied overnight, which was encouraging given that last week was the worst since March 2020. All three major indexes advanced, a welcome reprieve from watching stocks go in one direction in recent times. Investors are waiting for further commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell as he will be testifying before Congress today and tomorrow.
In company news, Kellogg announced that it will be separating into three different entities. They will have the North American cereal business, a smaller plant-based food brand, and a fast-growing snack business. Snap, crackle, and pop? Elsewhere, details of Apple's next software update, iOS 16, were revealed. This version will let you bypass captchas on some apps and websites, "unsend" embarrassing iMessages, and delete apps that you previously couldn't expunge.
At the end of a decent trading day, the JSE All-share closed up 0.60%, the S&P 500 gained 2.45%, and the Nasdaq rose 2.51%.
Our 10c Worth
One Thing, From Paul
We send out this Vestact newsletter every business day, from our offices in Rosebank. We aim to keep it punchy and interesting, because our readers are busy and probably receive too many emails.
We've noticed a solid uptick in the number of Out Of Office (OOO) e-mail responses recently. Many of these OOOs say "I'm gone and won't be checking my emails either, see you later", or words to that effect.
That's great, if you think about it, because it means people are taking proper holidays again. They call it "revenge travel", making up for lost time away, because of the Covid pandemic. Having said that, I'm still of the view that people who are reliable, contactable and hard-working will gain more workplace traction over time. So, don't take it too easy out there.
Byron's Beats
Being able to access quality business writing amongst all the clutter is pretty tough these days. There's a lot of "churnalism" out there. So when I come across a quality column I like to share it with our readers.
A few months ago veteran market commentator Tim Cohen started writing a daily piece called "After The Bell" for the Daily Maverick. It is quite similar to Matt Levine's column on Bloomberg. He finds a topic of interest and delves into it deeply. His writing style is refreshing and he often goes back in history to explain current affairs. In a country like ours, that's a great perspective.
Drone delivery, like fully autonomous cars, has been just on the horizon for many years now. Amazon, Google, and UPS are among the large corporates trying to commercialise drone delivery, but so far no one has come up with a workable system.
Last week Amazon announced that they would launch Prime drone delivery for residents in Lockeford, California, once they receive the necessary regulatory clearances. Lockeford is a town of just over 3 500 people, so the perfect setting for continued testing.
The challenge with drone delivery is navigation Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The drones need to detect and avoid obstacles, particularly when trying to land in someone's backyard. This is another step forward for Amazon, but I think we are still a few years away from seeing a large-scale delivery network. It is just on the horizon though!
Bright's Banter
Last year was a 'platinum record-breaking disco party' for venture capital. VC-backed companies raised about two-thirds of a trillion dollars, worldwide. That's double 2020's total.
In 2022, the champagne and cocaine in private markets started to run dry. In the first quarter of 2022, venture funding dropped to $142 billion, 20% less than the previous quarter.
By the end of this quarter, funding is projected to decrease another 19% to about $115 billion. As prices rise and the era of cheap capital comes to a close, expect that number to keep dropping. It's the same thing over and over; as the capital going into a sector increases, returns go down.
What's the opportunity? When capital flows drop below the average, it means that money deployed will likely outperform the money invested in those disco days. This is also true with public markets today, and I think we are well below our average currently, it's time to go hunting for bargains!
Linkfest, Lap It Up
For many movie franchises, coming up with evil characters is a torturous task. Ever since "Toy Story," Pixar has created antagonists who deftly reflect their main characters - How Pixar solved the villain problem.
Around one in 12 men suffer from colour blindness, but only one in 200 women have the same ailment. New technology is being developed to help colour-blind people see a broader spectrum - A day at the museum helping colour-blind guests see pink.
Signing Off
Asian markets are down this morning, with the MSCI Asia Pacific index shedding almost 1%. South Korea and mainland Chinese markets were down, while Japan was slightly in the green. Hong Kong-listed tech shares were among the worst performers of the day. Damn!
The Rand is trading at R15.99 against the US Dollar. That seems to be the new trading level it has settled on.
There is more trouble brewing in Eastern Europe, where Lithuania, backed up by the EU and Nato, is denying Russia road and rail access to Kaliningrad. That's a piece of Russian territory on the Baltic, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
US equity futures are down, as the optimism we saw yesterday seems to have evaporated. Let's see what happens as the day wears on, we are hardy types down here in Africa.
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