Dark stores and "dark" stores

Good Morning Voornaam,

Curious about Woolworths' strategy and how the retailer is coping in this load shedding environment? In the latest episode of Ghost Stories, brought to you by EasyEquities, I had a candid discussion with Woolworths CEO Roy Bagattini about his latest thinking and the strategic priorities at the retailer. It was a highly enjoyable conversation and I recommend that you make the time for it here>>>

Other podcasts that you'll enjoy:

SA Taxi crashes. Hard.

It's not a great day to be a Tra nsaction Capital shareholder. I knew things would be tougher for the group this year, but I don't think many investors expected the horror story that was released after the close of play yesterday.

Long story short: SA Taxi is broken. Badly broken.

The tone on the JSE is negative in general at the moment, with Absa guiding that its credit loss ratio will be higher than what we are seeing as guidance from the likes of Nedbank and Standard Bank. The Foschini Group put a lot of energy (excuse the terrible pun) into complaining about load shedding, even though they don't need to keep the clothes cold. MTN's margins in South Africa are coming under significant pressure, as I expected from the telcos sector this year. MultiChoice is also suffering , because TVs don't work terribly well without electricity. AfroCentric can't pay a dividend because the Department of Health owes it money and even Sibanye-Stillwater got shafted, literally.

Yikes.

For these updates and thankfully some positive news from the likes of Grand Parade Investments, Pan African Resources and Sun International, read Ghost Bites this morning>>>

Has the Fed hike taken a hike? font>

These are wild markets. The US 2-year yield has lost 100 basis points since Friday afternoon, with the market worried about potential contagion from Silicon Valley Bank. As TreasuryONE notes, the market has started pricing in a 0% chance of a hike at the FOMC next week, an astonishing turnaround. The CPI print later today has become even more important and will give the Fed a serious headache if it comes in higher than expected.

The dollar has been under pressure against major currencies, but of course the rand struggled to benefit from this. The real winner on the day was gold, with a 2.3% gain as the safe haven status found some buyers on a day when the VIX rose 12%.

In addition to its market risk services, TreasuryONE has various other offerings including an interesting cash flow forecasting solution. In a webinar on Wednesday at 9am, Pieter Cronje will be giving a presentation on this tool and taking your questions. If you are the founder or CFO of a group of companies that has complex cash flow reporting and forecasting needs, register for the webinar here>>>

Learn about bias - it will help you make better decisions

In the latest article by Satrix, Kingsley Williams and Nico Katzke have weighed in on the fascinating world of cognitive bias. This is an area of great interest for me, as the way we make decisi ons has a profound impact on our investments and our lives as well. Learn more here>>>

Have a great Tuesday!

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