| Five minutes and fifty seconds - that's all it takes with Ghost Wrap. Brought to you by Mazars, Ghost Wrap is your weekly update on the most interesting stories on the JSE. This week, I cover Renergen, The Foschini Group, Truworths, Clicks, Lewis, Astral Foods and ArcelorMittal. Listen to it here>>> For a longer podcast with some fun discussion points around the outlook for 2023 and particularly for South Africa, Episode 109 of Magic Markets saw Petri Redelinghuys of Herenya Capital Advisors join us. You can enjoy it here>>> Credit where credit is dueIf you know anything about retail, you'll know that furniture retail is highly dependent on credit sales. It's therefore no surprise that over 58% of Lewis' sales are on credit. What is noteworthy is the trend in credit and cash sales. Cash sales fell by 13.5% over the nine-month period and by 20.7% for the three months to December, both on a year-on-year basis. This is a clear indication of customer affordability, especially compared to credit sales that increased by 16.8% and 17.3% over those periods respectively. When you consider the rising interest rate environment that is the backdrop to this trend, it's clear that the focus for Lewis needs to be on credit collections. For this update and the latest from Grindrod Shipping and Industrials REIT, be sure to read Ghost Bites today>>> Love bitesJ-Lo's love may not have cost a thing (I'm giving my age away here), but a survey by the National Retail Federation in the US suggests that this isn't an indication of everyone's situation. Americans are planning to spend an average of of $192.80 on Valentine's Day, the second-highest amount since the survey began in 2004. Inflation is clearly a factor here, with a quick conversion to rands reminding you of how much wealthier the average American is. If you're d ating an Intel shareholder, you may be in for a disappointing February. After such terrible results, the share price dropped 6.4% on Friday. With a 32% drop in revenue and a net loss of $664 million for the fourth quarter, it's surprising that the drop wasn't worse! But there's still time to rather find someone from Goldman Sachs, where the CEO took a pay cut of 29%. That doesn't sound like good news, until you realise that his post-cut earnings were $25 million. That will buy a few dinners and roses. Heck, that will buy a few restaurants! The market is waiting for the FOMC meetingFriday was a fairly sideways day for the currency markets, with most participants looking ahead to the FOMC meeting this week for some direction. TreasuryONE notes that this could be the catalyst for a move out of the range-bound trading we have seen recently. It's also important to note that US Core PCE came out in line with expectations on Friday afternoon, supporting the hawkish commentary by Fed officials earlier in the week. Commodities ended the week as the mixed bag, with palladium down 2.8% on Friday. This is the most industrial demand-focused metal, so lower expected global demand becomes a headwind for palladium. In contrast, Brent Crude ended the week on the front foot, closing in on the $90 mark. Gig economy workers, lend us your earsIn the latest article from Satrix a s part of the new partnership with Ghost Mail, Duma Mxenge (Business Development Manager at Satrix) weighs in on the challenges that gig economy workers face in financial planning. This is an interesting and useful read for anyone with variable income. With that, I leave you to a productive Monday! | 