Your summary with links, if you’d like to curate your content: Taking it on the chin: It’s Still About EarningsEquities are holding up because earnings expectations haven’t cracked—yet. If the war drags on, downgrades follow, and markets lose their main support. Can US Consumers Keep Buying?Consumers are under pressure from rising fuel costs, high interest […]

Your summary with links, if you’d like to curate your content: Sod’s Law: Scenario Planning: Last week’s Iran crisis delivered an unscheduled stress test for global portfolios, highlighting the value of scenario planning as a strategic discipline. The key lesson is that complex systems react in messy, unpredictable ways, and a small shock in one […]

It’s never ‘fun’ to watch historical moments play out and see the stomach-churning effects on markets, but this also presents opportunities and a time to test our FOMO, perhaps?

If you’d like the ‘Pocket Tax Guide’ on the tax changes announced in the budget, just let me know or download it HERE.   The new escalation of the Middle East conflict is unfolding as we write this, and we have gone into it in a little more detail on the podcast that went out […]

Next week I will be covering the Budget, so watch your inboxes for that. Will there be another nasty VAT surprise? Will medical aid tax credits bite the dust? Your summary with links, if you’d like to curate your content: 🤖AI boom: hard landing, soft landing… or no landing?Record AI capex is reshaping markets, with […]

As we come to the end of another tax year, if you want to add to your retirement funds and get a tax break, you’d best get a wriggle on. Make a note to record your odometer reading at month’s end, and of course, the second provisional tax return is due at month’s end too. […]

Inflation has been the major driver of the central bank’s decisions in 2025 – will it still drive policy next year?  The NHI continues to hog headlines – can that cause damage even if it is a dead duck? Markets in 2025 would have been mediocre and dull without AI – what is the next […]

Your summary with links, if you’d like to pick and choose Debt Stabilisation: The 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) offered cautious optimism with government debt expected to stabilise at 77.9% of GDP—the first stable outlook since 2008. The budget deficit should narrow to 2.9% by FY27/28. US Market Caution: The Nasdaq fell by ~2.3%, S&P 500 […]

The RSA Medium Term Budget was out last week, along with optimistic new inflation guidelines.  Emerging markets are on a roll, and RSA forex is the best it’s been for a while. Beware of the share concentration in the US and Chinese markets, though, especially with market cap trackers. 

The podcast to this newsletter can be listened to here. Markets and Economics The JSE. The JSE All Share Index (SAALL, more commonly still called the ALSI – despite the change taking place in 2002) fell to 98,520 points by July 31, 2025. Despite this weekly dip, the index is up about 1.66% for the […]