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Good morning Voornaam,

I come to you from a very fast and exciting looking train. Painted in red like this country's famous cars, it's certainly a good way to get around.

Despite my trip having moved on, my focus this week is on fun facts about Turkey. As a fellow emerging market, Turkey is an important trading partner for South Africa. In 2023, we exported $424 million worth of goods and services to Turkey and we imported $915 million. Our top export is iron ore. Weirdly, our third most important export to Turkey is photographic cameras! I don't understand it either. There must be some kind of technology that roughly belongs in that bucket and nobody could think of a better place to put it.

In terms of imports, petroleum features at the top of the list. In fourth place, we find tractor parts! Interesting, right?

Onwards to SENS, where the property sector dished up loads of updates yesterday. Growthpoint is perhaps the biggest one, with the Capital & Regional deal finally going ahead. NewRiver has put in a cash and share offer that is acceptable to Growthpoint. I'm just not sure how it will work for other shareholders, as there's no indication right now that the enlarged group (NewRiver + Capital & Regional) will be listed on the JSE.

Other property news came in from Attacq and Hyprop, where the deals to sell the African exposure to Lango Real Estate are now unconditional. There's also a pre-close presentation for Vukile and if you're invested in Clicks or Dis-Chem, you'll certainly want to check out the info that Vukile gives on retail category performance.

And to finish off a busy day of news, we saw numbers from Choppies and Gemfields.

Get it all in Ghost Bites, your one-click SENS summary at this link>>>

I have two great new podcasts to share with you today. The first is the latest episode of The Trader's Handbook, in which we talked about risk mitigation tools for traders. We also covered support and resistance lines as important technical indicators. For those interested in trading, this is a valuable podcast>>>

The second is Magic Markets, with a useful discussion on how to read an income statement in a way that focuses on the most important information. For those doing equity research (which means most of you I'm sure), this is a useful resource>>>

Have a great day!

FEATURED: The Trader's Handbook Ep 7

IG Markets Episode 7: Building on previous discussions around technical trading indicators, we explored the concept of volatility and its significance in managing risk. We talked about stop losses, leverage and position sizing. We also included a piece on support and resistance lines. Learn all about it at this link>>>

FEATURED: Index-tracking and the balance between returns and fees

Satrix: The importance of fees in an investment strategy cannot be emphasised enough, especially when you consider the power of compounding. In this piece, Satrix explains how index-tracking strategies help balance returns and fees. Find it here>>>

FEATURED: How to Interpret Profits

Magic Markets: Doing your own research isn't easy, especially when you consider how complicated financial statements are. In this episode, we explain the most important parts of the income statement and how to interpret it in a useful way. Get it here>>>

FEATURED: A responsible investing roadmap

Investec Wealth & Investment International has launched a comprehensive guidebook on responsible investing. In the latest episode of the No Ordinary Wednesday, Jeremy Maggs speaks to the authors, Boipelo Rabothata and Maxine Gray. Enjoy it here>>>

Ghost Bites - local company news:

Ghost Bites: The latest on Attacq, Hyprop, Capital & Regional, Growthpoint, Choppies, Gemfields and Vukile along with various Nibbles in Ghost Bites here>>>

Ghost Wrap:

Ghost Bites: Get up to date on the performance and latest news at Sibanye-Stillwater, Truworths, Finbond and Barloworld in just a few minutes. Brought to you by Forvis Mazars, you can enjoy Ghost Wrap here>>>

Dominique Olivier: Forever in blue jeans, babe

Dominique Olivier: Levi Strauss takes a lot of credit for inventing jeans. That's not quite true, although the plucky German entrepreneur certainly played the key role in taking them to the people. Dominique Olivier tells the story of everyone's staple wardrobe item here>>>

International Business Snippet:

There are a couple of important earnings announcements due today. Costco is one of them, with the US retailer having enjoyed a rally of 40% year-to-date and 64% over the past 12 months. These earnings have big shoes to fill, with the market pricing Costco in a way that nothing can go wrong. If there's a wobbly in the numbers, there will be major share price action.

Also look out for Accenture, which has had a far less exciting year. The share price is down roughly 3% in 2024 thus far, reflecting a slowdown in IT spend relative to the pandemic boom in cloud investment. Accenture is one of my long-term holdings in my portfolio as I like the business model and the way they entrench themselves in customers.

We've covered both these companies before in Magic Markets Premium. To add to the library of research, our focus this week is on McDonald's. Has the company lost its edge in providing the cheapest fast food around? You'll find out in the latest report for our subscribers this week.

IG Morning Call: daily macroeconomic update

Asian equity benchmarks are notably higher in early trade as Chinese authorities look to inject further liquidity into the region's banking sector. US and European index futures are marginally firmer this morning with the JSE All-Share Index expected to follow suit.

The dollar index has posted a modest rebound from oversold territory against the majors, ahead of this afternoon's address by Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The rand has however managed to hold onto its best levels in more than eighteen months against the greenback, supported by higher export commodity prices.

Oil prices have started to correct their recent gains, while gold continues to hover around all-time highs.

On the local front we await PPI inflation data this morning, while in the US, markets await weekly employment data, final GDP data and a testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Key Indicators: USD/ZAR R17.20/$ | US 10yr 3.78% | Gold $2,661/oz | Platinum $998/oz | Brent Crude $72.65

The macroeconomic update is based on IG's morning call update