Stock market technical analysts are fixated with the 200-day Moving Average which they say provides either support (in a Bull Market) or resistance (Bear) for share prices going forward. After the major US indices broke above this critical tend last week, declines in the past two days have brought the Nasdaq perilously close to dropping below the trend line again. Minutes from the latest Fed meeting helped share prices stage a recovery late in the US afternoon, but it ran out of steam towards...

Several opposition parties gathered in Johannesburg on Wednesday to outline their plans to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account for the allegations surrounding the Phala Phala theft matter. Reading the joint statement on behalf of opposition parties - excluding the Democratic Alliance, among others - EFF leader Julius Malema says parties will request a follow-up meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly to discuss all accountability issues, including the usage of a secret ballot...

Bronwyn Nielsen speaks to Thabang Mahlangu, the automotive and TFL lead at Nedbank CIB, about South Africa's journey to mass electric vehicle adoption. the country's lack of policy and legislative frameworks to drive growth in the EV market, and how the adoption of EV could benefit SA in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russian oil is getting through to users despite Western sanctions, a reality that's starting to dawn on the market and analysts with Barclays yesterday joined Goldman Sachs in sharply dropping its oil price forecast. A record dividend declaration by BHP in its annual results released yesterday highlighted Anglo American's coal blunder. The 26% bottom line surge at 'The Big Australian' was solely due to the higher contribution from its booming coal interests - Anglo bowed to ESG-driven...

Interest rates are going up in the UK and the property market growth in the retail sector has slowed down substantially. So is it still a good destination for South Africans wishing to hedge their investments against instability in South Africa? Migrant specialists, Sable International, say it is. Group international director of Sable International, Andrew Rissik, and the director of the real estate division, Megan Copley, told BizNews about opportunities in the UK, and how South Africans...

Extensive delays by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, and the Minister of Finance to take final decisions in dozens of customs duty investigations have cost the fiscus at least R1.25bn in revenue. So believes Donald MacKay, CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors. He was speaking at the launch of the XA Open Cases Report which outlines how long these customs duty cases are taking to be decided by the International Trade Administration Commission. The report found that in addition to...

The oil price dropped almost $4 a barrel overnight as the consequences of China's zero-Covid approach to the virus continued to knock its economy. While most of the world, including SA, is now tightening monetary policy to squeeze out higher inflation, China has the opposite problem and yesterday cut two key interest rates in an attempt to warm up an ice cold economy. On Wall Street, the main driver of the market is expectations on inflation. These appear to have changed from fretting about...

Our partners at the Financial Times have a fantastic podcast episode that tracks the fortunes of President Cyril Ramaphosa since he took over the reins of power from embattled former head of state Jacob Zuma. While Ramaphosa’s 2017 Nasrec win at the ANC’s elective conference came with much fanfare about South Africa being on the precipice of a new dawn - it wasn’t to last with the sitting head of state now dogged by his own Phala Phala skeletons, while his party faced spirally fortunes in...

The new management team at Absa continue to impress SA's top banking analyst, Kokkie Kooyman of Denker Capital. The bank's interim results for the half year to end June positions Absa as 'the best of the rest' behind market leading FirstRand, about as impressive an accolade as CEO Arrie Rautenbach could ask for. A strong profit increase, expanding market share, a solid balance sheet and a favourable cycle positions Absa shares for further gains - in Kooyman's opinion, around 50% upside over...

Wall Street is enjoying its best run in almost a year with share prices posting their fourth consecutive weekly rise, boosted by a strong session on Friday. Also in this episode of the BizNews Breakfast Briefing, bullion is back above $1 800 and the Rand continues to gather momentum. The quiet revolution for Crypto continues with Bitcoin strong again last week as news emerged that major global institutions are taking big bets. On the JSE, the tussle over Telkom gave the stock another double...

However the chips fall during SA's watershed 2024 National Election, the founder of One South Africa Movement, a community-driven, activist organisation, expects to play a prominent role in the likely new ruling coalition. Perhaps even as the country's President. In this fascinating interview, Mmusi Maimane shares how he is helping, Macron-style, to disrupt local politics and offers some suggestions on where it may be headed, The former Leader of SA's Official Opposition also explains why he...

With suitors for Telkom now rapidly emerging thick, rain chairman and co-founder Paul Harris visited the BizNews studio to offer the elevator pitch for a merger of his speedboat with the supertanker. Of all the bidders, Harris alone is not in uncharted waters. In 1998, Harris together with partners Laurie Dippenaar and GT Ferreira merged relatively small and youthful RMB with venerable First National Bank. That created FirstRand, a group now worth R390bn, by some margin the most valuable...

A team of Israeli water experts is in South Africa to meet various municipalities, hoping to share world-leading technology that could help turn around the country’s ailing water infrastructure. South Africa is a water-stressed country with some bulk infrastructure as old as 80 years. Dr Clive Lipchin is heading the team of Israeli academics and spoke as part of a panel in Johannesburg. Lipchin is positive that their overtures to assist South Africa won’t be undermined or dismissed by...

The US stock markets took a breather overnight, shrugging off more good news on the inflation front where July's growth in the Producer Price Index dropped to its lowest since October 2021. The JSE had a good session yesterday, helped by strong interim numbers reported by MTN which led the charge with a 9% share price jump. Close behind was MTN's takeover target Telkom, up another 6% after six year old data-only telecoms company rain handed the Telkom board a proposal to merge with the former...

Depression and anxiety are mental illnesses that have become ubiquitous in modern society and their prevalence is on the rise. As is the widespread use of antidepressants and other psychiatric medication to combat the crippling symptoms which accompany them. Antidepressants, however, are in no way a panacea to depression. In addition to treating the symptoms and not the root cause, many antidepressants have terrible side-effects, as discussed with Dr Joanna Moncrieff recently. Dr Ted Dinan,...

The DA remains adamant that an ad-hoc committee is the most appropriate and effective means through which to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa accountable for the allegations stemming from the Phala Phala robbery in February 2020. But in July this year, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula denied their request, citing other organs of state which were dealing with the matter. Meanwhile, the Speaker announced that she would refer the African Transformation Movement's (ATM) Section 89...

In this powerful expose' of a R320bn ripoff, straight-shooting financial insider Sean Peche says despite massive underperformance, SA's Big Three Balanced Fund unit trusts are harvesting billions every year from clients via management and 'performance' fees. The mushrooming of these funds into R100bn giants, is driven by marketing and profits, and has nothing to do with returns to savers - which have been pathetic. The fiercely independent founder of UK-based Ranmore Funds says it's high time...

A slight change to the BizNews Breakfast Briefing format on a day when the Nasdaq gained almost 3% to officially move the tech heavy index back into a Bull Market. Stimulus came from a US consumer price index for July that was lower than analysts had anticipated, suggesting peak inflation is behind us. Big moves, too, from Bitcoin and the Rand overnight with both extending recent gains. Also in this episode of BBB with Alec Hogg and Lucy Ferreira - an assessment of Nedbank's financial results...

Deeper research into the functions of the human body never cease to move beyond the realm of fascinating. In an insightful discussion with Professor Owen Epstein, a pioneering professor of gastroenterology based at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, the gut-brain connection was explored. He explained the significance of the vagus nerve - the internet and superhighway of the human body - keeping us constantly aware of our safety, the same way our external organs (eyes, ears, nose)...

Bronwyn Nielsen spoke to Mike Peo, head of Infrastructure, Energy and Telecommunications at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking about the green hydrogen energy space and whether this is going to be transformative for the energy landscape in South Africa and potentially, Africa. While Peo confirmed that we may be on the cusp of a revolution in the energy space, he emphasised the need for a proper transition in South Africa, which has two of the world’s biggest polluters: Sasol and Eskom....

Plenty to catch up on after SA's public holiday yesterday, but little of it is encouraging. US stock markets are fretting over downbeat reports from New York listed chip makers and corporate America's anger at Joe Biden's economic package announced yesterday. The share price of BizNews portfolio favourite Palantir lost 20% in two days despite the company beating analysts' revenue projections for the second quarter because its forecast for Q3 is well below what they had pencilled in. On a...

The 2024 national elections could herald a transitional phase in the history of South Africa, depending on the emergence of a new political vehicle located outside of traditional party politics. That's what polling data tells political analyst Lukhona Mnguni, head of policy and research at think-tank, the Rivonia Circle. He's confident that coalition politics is likely to dominate the national political landscape, pointing out that the ANC's own discussion documents peg their performance in...

Markets were neutral on Friday as July's US jobs numbers surprised economists to the upside (more than double forecasts) while BizNews stock holding Cloudflare rallied 27%. Also in today's BizNews Breakfast Briefing top gig companies, Uber and Lyft are making more than ever, while Apple is in hot water for claims of mishandling harassment and misconduct cases. Low profile, big reputation: 36ONE’s Cy Jacobs on Naspers, Absa and the investment approach that’s attracted R33bn Best of BizNews #1...

In this episode of CrypTalk, BizNews' Ross Sinclair speaks with Gaurav Nair of Jaltech, an alternative investment fund, about NFTs, what they can be used for, whether they will all be worthless one day, as well as the Solana cyberattack which stripped multiple Solana owners of their tokens to the estimated amount of $8m.  Also discussed is what drove the growth of the Jaltech cryptocurrency basket after a promising month in which the value of the basket rose by around 33%.  For more...