Latest / Strictly Business / The 5 o' Clock Shadow with Schalk Louw
Transcript
- 0:00You're listening to Strictly Business Podcast with Lindsay Williams.
- 0:05The JSC has closed its doors for another day, so it's time for the 5 o'clock
- 0:09shadow.
- 0:09And as always on a Wednesday, I speak to Skulk Lowe, Portfolio Manager at PSG
- 0:15Wealth Old Oak in Cape Town.
- 0:17Now, Skulk, I spoke to you off air and asked you to get a wire coat hanger.
- 0:20And
- 0:22I asked you to insert one end of the wire coat hanger in your right cheek.
- 0:29and the other in your left cheek to see if it would fit.
- 0:33And I'm betting there was room to spare with the smile on your face.
- 0:39I know exactly what you're talking about.
- 0:41I mean, that smile is as good as gold.
- 0:44Good as gold.
- 0:45Isn't it fantastic news?
- 0:46I mean, it just doesn't stop.
- 0:48I mean, on the one hand, it is fantastic.
- 0:50On the other hand, you're beset with worries because it is so fantastic and it
- 0:56just doesn't look real to me.
- 0:58I mean, I looked at...
- 1:00it my screen, it was 42.20 a little while ago.
- 1:01Obviously, it's churning around that 4,200 level.
- 1:05But these are levels you could never have predicted or hoped for, Skulk.
- 1:10No, I mean, I've been verbally positive on the goal pass for many,
- 1:17many years.
- 1:18So there's no doubt.
- 1:19But I mean, this is just crazy.
- 1:21I mean, this is now bordering ludicrous.
- 1:24I mean, because, you know, we had...
- 1:26this conversation exactly a week ago where we sort of had a similar not a coat hanger
- 1:33intro but but a very similar intro where we went
- 1:35like can you believe it gold just ran through four thousand dollars i mean now
- 1:40we're talking about
- 1:42four thousand two hundred dollars i mean that's that's five percent another five
- 1:47percent in in one week i mean if you look at the
- 1:49the levels that we've seen in in the beginning of september beginning
- 1:51of september we were trading three three and a thousand per ounce.
- 1:57If we take the clock back to the 1st of January, you'll be talking about $2,500
- 2:03per ounce.
- 2:05I mean, so yeah, you need to be in it to win it.
- 2:07And I think I've looked at a graph earlier today where they plot the current movement
- 2:14of the gold price.
- 2:16And they look at the previous, I think the previous massive spike that we've seen
- 2:23somewhere 30, 40 years ago.
- 2:25And the one thing is when gold move,
- 2:29don't be in too much of a rush to call tops on this one because
- 2:36usually when something like this happens, it can go a hell of a lot higher.
- 2:41There's two things I would say to you, Skel.
- 2:44The first is that a German friend of mine was watching German TV and she phoned me
- 2:50up and she said,
- 2:52I've just liquidated my savings and I'm putting it into gold.
- 2:57Oh no.
- 2:58Big ring of a bell, a huge bell.
- 3:01And the other thing is, it hasn't happened yet, but if there is any indication from a
- 3:08layman's point of view,
- 3:10that's me, I'm not an expert like you, when the shares don't match the actual
- 3:14rise in the price of gold,
- 3:16so let's say gold goes to 4,500, but the shares stay stable or even go down,
- 3:21from the level they were when they were 42.50, when the gold was 42.50 or
- 3:27something, that would be the time for me to say, no,
- 3:29that's it, thank you very much.
- 3:31Is that it?
- 3:33It's called a non-confirmation, I think.
- 3:35Yeah, that's definitely a non-confirmation.
- 3:38Excuse all the secretaries now, but they usually say when the secretaries start
- 3:44buying equities,
- 3:46that's the closest time to we see a crash in the market.
- 3:49Vietnam.
- 3:50Yeah, it is.
- 3:53There was a lot of good reasons why gold should have moved over $2,000 and into the
- 3:59$2,000 levels.
- 4:01And on that note, do you remember that day I sent you?
- 4:04I think it was March 17, 2022.
- 4:06I sent you a screenshot of the trading market, live trading market in gold.
- 4:13And it was a bid of $9.98 and a half.
- 4:16Offer of $19.98 and a half was the bid.
- 4:191999.3 was the offer or something.
- 4:23And we got so excited because it was just about to go through 2000.
- 4:27And now look at it.
- 4:28We're still talking about this blasted thing.
- 4:31It's three years ago, Lindsay.
- 4:32And I think more important, I can still remember that day as well.
- 4:36Because I'm not going to look for it now.
- 4:38But I remember I still published a tweet, tongue in the cheek,
- 4:45just stating.
- 4:46Do you remember when gold was still trading below $2,000?
- 4:50Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
- 4:52And now it's just crazy to think.
- 4:54I mean, it was a joke that day.
- 4:56But I mean, here we're sitting three years ago, and I want to ask you.
- 5:01Can you still remember when gold was still trading below $2,000?
- 5:06I can remember when gold was trading at $250 an ounce, but that's another story.
- 5:11I've got another story for you now, and you probably know it, but it's very
- 5:15interesting.
- 5:17You're more of an accountant-leaning person than I am.
- 5:19How much gold does the U.S.
- 5:21have in its reserves?
- 5:22Have you any idea?
- 5:25Give us a rough figure.
- 5:26No, don't give me a rough figure because you're going to be way out.
- 5:29I'll tell you it's got 261.5 million ounces.
- 5:33I mean you've seen the film
- 5:35Goldfinger, the James Bond film where he was trying to knock off Fort Knox which is
- 5:42where a lot of the
- 5:42gold is kept underground and it's encircled by troops 24 hours a day.
- 5:48But the important thing here is that the book entry for gold is from 1973 and it
- 5:55hasn't been changed in all
- 5:57these decades.
- 5:59$42.
- 6:01And 22 cents per ounce.
- 6:03So if Trump ever finds this out, I mean, he's too stupid to know it.
- 6:05But if he works out that gold at 4,000 is very different,
- 6:10it's 100 times different to what the gold is valued at, he could probably say, I'm
- 6:16going to value it at 4,000.
- 6:18Therefore, I'll be the president that made gold go up from, I don't know how many
- 6:22billion it is,
- 6:24to just about a trillion dollars worth they've got.
- 6:26And you go from there.
- 6:27But the book entry is obviously important to the Treasury.
- 6:32What would happen if they actually valued it at real prices?
- 6:36What would it mean for the United States and indeed the world?
- 6:40I think there's quite a lot to digest, what you just mentioned.
- 6:47But I think one thing that I think is important to note is that the U.S.,
- 6:53they haven't increased their gold in...
- 6:55Decades.
- 6:58Yeah.
- 6:58We know the Bank of England.
- 7:00They look really bad.
- 7:02I think they must be one of the only central banks that's actually reduced
- 7:09their gold
- 7:11reserves over the past, let's quote, 25 years.
- 7:12And man, oh man, can you still remember what levels they actually sold?
- 7:16The last couple of tons or the last
- 7:19200,000 ounces or so were sold by a Scottish fellow.
- 7:24He goes by the name of Gordon Brown.
- 7:26He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time and then went on to become Prime
- 7:31Minister.
- 7:31I think it was $252.20.
- 7:34And everyone waited for that last bit.
- 7:37They flagged it.
- 7:37They said, we're selling all our gold, we've got X amount left.
- 7:41And all the traders were licking their lips and rubbing their hands together and
- 7:48saying, right, Gordon Brown's out.
- 7:50And they just bought it from then on in.
- 7:51That was the signal for the turn in the gold price.
- 7:53Gordon Brown, bless him.
- 7:57Anyway, just to go on, you're still long and are you still bullish?
- 8:02Yeah.
- 8:03So, I mean, when you look at the United Kingdom, they had just shy of 500 tons.
- 8:08So, about 300, let's go, 480 tons back then.
- 8:14They're currently sitting with reserves, you know, 310 tons.
- 8:18That is shameful.
- 8:21That is crazy.
- 8:22That is crazy.
- 8:23But to your point again, United States is exactly the same.
- 8:27When we look at the current reserves for, what's the second?
- 8:31Second largest is Russia.
- 8:35No, I'm lying.
- 8:36There's going to be France.
- 8:38But I mean, if you look at something like
- 8:42China, they're currently sitting with 2,279 tons gold.
- 8:48In 2000...
- 8:49China was sitting with 395.
- 8:53Look at that.
- 8:54They've just been accumulating all the time.
- 8:56They're very clever.
- 8:57Exactly.
- 9:00Russia has probably been drawing down in order to pay for the war in Ukraine.
- 9:03That's what I think.
- 9:04I know they've been doing that with platinum group metals.
- 9:08But anyway, central banks have been buying.
- 9:10And normally, in normal geopolitical circumstances,
- 9:15unless there's something disastrous going on with an economy, they're normally quite
- 9:20strong holders.
- 9:22So in other words, if they buy it at 4,000, they're not going to be selling it
- 9:26at 4,500.
- 9:28They'll hold on.
- 9:30But look at the effect that it had, for instance, on the South African market.
- 9:32I had an interesting conversation today, and I'll do some name-dropping.
- 9:37We had a conversation with Cornelius Ziermann. He's one of the fund managers,
- 9:42the fund manager of the Fairtree Global Emerging Market Fund.
- 9:46Yeah.
- 9:47And.
- 9:48We were talking about losing alpha, gaining alpha, and I said, well,
- 9:53you guys were pretty overweight in gold.
- 9:57But interesting, so two years ago, I said two could be...
- 10:02It could be a little bit longer.
- 10:03It could be that quarter 2022.
- 10:07The weight within the oil share, gold shares.
- 10:12Remember, at that stage, Sabania still watered, I mean, not even 10%
- 10:17of the profits were made out of gold mining.
- 10:21Today, it's just 50%.
- 10:24I think 47%, 48% of the profits is made out of gold.
- 10:28So we didn't count...
- 10:31So, Banya Stillwater has a gold counter back then.
- 10:33So, there was only five gold counters.
- 10:35So, it's Anglia Gold, Goldfields, Harmony, Durban Rediputi, Pan African Resources.
- 10:40They didn't make up 4% of the JSE.
- 10:43And now?
- 10:44Total weight.
- 10:46Today, as we sit here, it's over 16%.
- 10:48That's just the gold counters.
- 10:53And that's the market capitalization of the stocks?
- 10:56That's the market capitalization.
- 10:57within the JSE All Show.
- 11:00by the JSE All Share in some form of ETF, like, for instance, Satrix, Satrix Alls.
- 11:0616% of your holding, of your investment,
- 11:11will be invested in five gold mines.
- 11:1416%.
- 11:15If you, exactly a year ago, if you invested in PGMs,
- 11:21now that's the likes of the Volterras, Anglo-American Platinum, Impala Platinum,
- 11:27and Northern Platinum.
- 11:29That didn't make up, it was just over 2%.
- 11:36Today, as we sit here, the total weight of those three counters is now 8%.
- 11:42So, if you combine the likes of your
- 11:48PGM counters and your gold counters, it's now getting very,
- 11:51very close to a quarter of the total JSE.
- 11:56That's just precious metals.
- 11:57And that's just pretty...
- 11:58pretty much coming out of seven counters.
- 12:01No, sorry, it's eight counters.
- 12:03It's exciting in many ways, isn't it?
- 12:04Because it's like the old days.
- 12:06But on the other hand, it leaves the market a little bit vulnerable should
- 12:12there be a bit of a knockoff.
- 12:14Yeah.
- 12:14Yeah, no, it's definitely worrying because, I mean,
- 12:21the words that I heard the most over today's conversation were that words.
- 12:28called concentration risk.
- 12:30Suddenly we're sitting with a bit of concentration risk in the JSE as well.
- 12:35Here's a very interesting one.
- 12:36And we've often had this conversation, Lindsay, where we discuss the different
- 12:42indices.
- 12:44Back then we talked about what's the difference between the JSE cap SWIX or cap
- 12:51all share
- 12:53compared to the JSE normal all share.
- 12:55And that's just usually...
- 12:57That's just that they cap certain companies.
- 13:00You don't have a scenario like, for instance, what's it, five years ago, six
- 13:05years ago,
- 13:06where a NASPAS suddenly makes up more than 20% of your total index.
- 13:13And that's why they created this.
- 13:16But if you look at the return profile of both these indices,
- 13:22you would note that it's really been very, very close, close in terms of
- 13:27um performances so in dollar terms if you look at it year to date year to date uh
- 13:33the dollar return for for
- 13:35the jse is now way over 36 closer to
- 13:3940 40 then you get something called the the um you could get something called the
- 13:46msci south african index now this is why by the way scalco
- 13:52I couldn't manage to carry on a career in financial services.
- 13:55It just became too complicated.
- 13:57But go on.
- 13:59Yeah.
- 14:00So you had your, what we call the JSE, or the MSCI
- 14:07South Africa.
- 14:08Now, whenever you get an interview, a lot of people will be very well known, you
- 14:13know,
- 14:14on what is the MSCI world or MSCI all country world.
- 14:17Here's a little bit of a lesson.
- 14:19When somebody says they follow the MSCI world, You know that you've got no,
- 14:24no exposure to any emerging markets.
- 14:27It's literally, you just invested in developed markets.
- 14:31When it's got that all-country world in front of it,
- 14:35then it's the developed markets or the MSCI world with emerging markets.
- 14:40And that accounts for about, let's call it 15% of the total
- 14:46MSCI all-country world is the emerging markets and the remaining 80%.
- 14:5285% will be developed markets.
- 14:55So then how do you get classified to become part of the MSCI?
- 15:02So if that specific company is listed in South
- 15:09Africa, because remember, if you invest in the likes of British American tobacco
- 15:14company,
- 15:16although we got a secondary listing in South Africa, the primary listing is in
- 15:20the UK.
- 15:21So that company will form part of the MSCR UK, not South Africa.
- 15:26Okay, so because of its London listing, that takes precedent over the...
- 15:31Johannesburg listing.
- 15:33That's it.
- 15:34Exactly.
- 15:36So if you invest, for instance, in Richemont, Richemont,
- 15:41although it's again got its listing in South Africa, its primary listing is in
- 15:47Switzerland.
- 15:47So that will form part of the MSCI
- 15:50Switzerland. So when somebody invests in the MSCI South Africa,
- 15:55that will be your pure South African companies.
- 15:59That will be your NASPAS.
- 16:01because it's still got its primary listing in South Africa.
- 16:04That will be your South African banks.
- 16:07So just to get and a lot of people will usually say that's more reflective of your
- 16:13SA Inc.
- 16:15type of stocks, although it's a little bit difficult to say that,
- 16:16but that is sort of your SA Inc.
- 16:20stocks.
- 16:21Do you want to take a guess, year-to-date,
- 16:24what the MSCI South Africa is currently what it's done year-to-date?
- 16:30in dollar terms.
- 16:31Yes, it's $18 in dollar terms.
- 16:33Gosh, I don't know.
- 16:34Scalp, 27%.
- 16:36There's that laugh again.
- 16:40There's that coat hanger coming in.
- 16:41You should try harder.
- 16:45It's currently 65%. Not bad.
- 16:49In dollar terms, year to date.
- 16:51Dollars terms, crikey.
- 16:52But then again, in round terms, it'll be less than that because the round's been
- 16:57stronger against the dollar.
- 16:59Slightly, slightly.
- 17:01Slightly less, but I mean, it just shows you what our pure South African countess
- 17:05has done this year.
- 17:07And yes, it is.
- 17:09Remember, your Impala Platinum has got its main listing in South Africa.
- 17:11Your Durban-Rudipur Deep, your Northern Platinum, those all companies.
- 17:17This is all hindsight, Scott.
- 17:18This is all hindsight.
- 17:20This is where you're going to earn your money.
- 17:21I was talking to a fund manager yesterday, very, very good fund manager as well.
- 17:27A woman who talks her mind and I said, what differentiates your fund from the
- 17:33rest?
- 17:33Because she outstrips everybody.
- 17:36And she said, I'm a good seller.
- 17:38And that was the only thing she said about being differentiated from the
- 17:45herd, selling properly.
- 17:49She said, we're very good buyers, anyone can buy.
- 17:51You buy gold because it's doing so well.
- 17:53I'm a buyer, You don't get many people saying, gosh, he or she's a good seller.
- 17:59That's my lesson of the day.
- 18:00So tell us, where is it going?
- 18:01When are you selling?
- 18:04When am I selling gold?
- 18:05Yeah, when are you selling gold?
- 18:06Come on now.
- 18:07It's not very well being a buyer.
- 18:09So currently, I don't want to sound like a typical economist.
- 18:14They always say you need to find yourself a one-handed economist.
- 18:18Economists always remember, they always say, on the one hand, we see interest
- 18:24rates going up.
- 18:26It's called political correctness.
- 18:28It's called corporate governance.
- 18:30But anyway, go on.
- 18:32But I mean, if I'm going to be a one-handed portfolio manager,
- 18:35I do think that that gold is currently overvalued.
- 18:38I do think it's done a little bit too much too quickly.
- 18:43Because, I mean, we've seen a massive, massive retracement.
- 18:47There's a lot of people that say, well, if we currently look at all the gold
- 18:53reserves,
- 18:55available in the world and still need to attach some sort of valuation
- 19:01of all the money that's been printed and a gold can pretty much go to a hundred
- 19:08thousand over a hundred thousand dollars per ounce
- 19:10I'm not in that court we've gone beyond that but gold has done a lot
- 19:14I'm always worried when the likes of of the Goldman Sachs is like for instance
- 19:21last week came out and say well they now increase
- 19:23their forecast for gold.
- 19:25um you're so brave of them i mean they said it would be 4 000 in the first
- 19:28quarter of 2026 it goes to 4
- 19:30000 two days later and then they say oh it's going to go here next i'd love to get
- 19:36a seven figure figure just to talk to state
- 19:38the obvious which is what these people do a lot of the time and i'm of course being
- 19:43jealous and generalist generalistic about it
- 19:45anyway scout go on sorry goldman sachs So they're calling it $4,009,
- 19:49and then I always get a bit worried.
- 19:51And it's like you mentioned, if I look at media, if I look at social media, and if I
- 19:57look at I get very similar vibes.
- 19:59that I actually got a year or so ago when people, when
- 20:03Bitcoin just went through the $100,000 mark and people were saying, well, this is
- 20:09only the beginning.
- 20:11It's now going to go to a million dollars.
- 20:14That's where I get a little bit worried.
- 20:16But remember, and we've had this conversation, I'm still invested in the
- 20:23gold mines.
- 20:25And when you've got a mine, like for instance, the likes of a gold fields, gold
- 20:29fields,
- 20:31they're all in cost.
- 20:33That is what it costs them to go down those mines, to mine these gold.
- 20:36Dig it out of the ground, in other words.
- 20:38Yes, that's all in cost.
- 20:41They're mining this for anything between $1,700 and they haven't reached $2,000.
- 20:47So let's call it $2,000 per ounce.
- 20:51The longer that the gold prices stay at these current levels, these mines are
- 20:58printing money.
- 21:00They've got 120% margins.
- 21:01It's extraordinary what's going on.
- 21:04So suddenly the gold mines, that's usually been something you trade, not invest in,
- 21:09is suddenly a great company to be invested in because they extremely, well, the cash
- 21:15flow positive,
- 21:17they don't have any debt on their balance sheets.
- 21:19Yes, as long as the gold price stay at these levels, I'm happy.
- 21:24I'm happy to hold my investment in gold because gold, they're actually still doing
- 21:31really,
- 21:33really well.
- 21:35Well, I hope you're just ready for something that happens in the future,
- 21:37which will happen, of course.
- 21:39It is going to happen.
- 21:41It never goes up in a straight line.
- 21:42Nothing as parabolic as this anyway.
- 21:44So just be ready.
- 21:46I know you always are.
- 21:47And you'll be the first or second one to press the sell button as soon as that gold
- 21:53price tips over,
- 21:55which it will one day.
- 21:57Not yet, though.
- 21:59OK, Scott, we've talked about the exciting stuff.
- 22:01Let's get the boring stuff out the way now.
- 22:03Karoo's numbers came out from the JSC today.
- 22:05Share price down around about 10%.
- 22:07There was some sort of corporate activity at AECI,
- 22:10and that share price down 8.5%.
- 22:12Do you want to talk about either of those briefly?
- 22:15AECI, where we can chat about Kuru, I always struggle because that's not the way
- 22:21you spell the Kuru.
- 22:23Exactly, it's got five O's, hasn't it?
- 22:24I struggle to read any trading statements or financial statements when they spell
- 22:31Kuru
- 22:31with five O's.
- 22:33I agree, so they can go and stop being stupid and spell it properly and then
- 22:39we'll have a look at it.
- 22:41AECI now, bang bang.
- 22:43Now all the listeners will remember Karu is the one with the five O's. Yeah, ACI,
- 22:48the CEO now resigned.
- 22:51He stepped down as CEO.
- 22:53He's been CEO for, and he stated that it's for personal and family reasons.
- 23:00And people know this is a company that I do like.
- 23:03But this is one of those that's just been such a frustration for me
- 23:10because Although it's definitely a value stock,
- 23:14it's a company that's been well managed over the years.
- 23:19And it's a company that's looking financially healthy.
- 23:22They've been selling off some of these offshore companies that they had.
- 23:27So the company is looking, I would say, financially very, very sound.
- 23:32But when a CEO surprised the market by stepping down or noting
- 23:39that he's going to step down, And people usually ask the questions, why?
- 23:42Why?
- 23:43Personal reasons.
- 23:44Why not?
- 23:45Sometimes you feel like stepping down, don't you?
- 23:47And going and sitting with a cool something in your hand and looking out and
- 23:52saying, goodness me,
- 23:54I'll miss gold.
- 23:54But, God, goodness me, it's served me well.
- 23:57You'd like to do that, surely, one day.
- 24:00Correct.
- 24:01And it's been in that position or on the leadership position for over 18 years.
- 24:07So, I mean, it's… Somewhere along the line, you just know it is time.
- 24:13But the market did not like that at all.
- 24:17And the share price, that was down 8.8% today on the news.
- 24:22Okay.
- 24:22I know it's time to get on with the markets because we've been… jabbering on
- 24:26for far too long.
- 24:28Dollar-Rand is 1732, a little bit of risk off, got the Rand a little bit weaker.
- 24:33The dollar though is 0.4% down against the Rand, so overnight the Rand was weaker
- 24:39than it is.
- 24:41British Pound against the Rand 2320, Euro-Rand back above 20, 2015.
- 24:45Euro-Dollar is 116.35, that's a Euro that's about a quarter of a percent higher
- 24:52against the greenback and
- 24:54British pound against US dollar.
- 24:56is 133.95 over to gold 4200 on the noggin it's 59 up or
- 25:001.4 platinum up 22 to 16.99 16.99 is
- 25:061700 a big number i'll look on my graph later on the palladium price is
- 25:12not slipping but slipping relative to platinum it's only up ten dollars an ounce
- 25:19to 15.99 dollars per ounce
- 25:21okay let's move to other commodities now the oil price is all over the place in the
- 25:25last couple of months.
- 25:27And I think it was on Monday, it was on Friday, it was down about 5%.
- 25:31Today, it's down 0.4%.
- 25:33That's Brent crude $62.02 a barrel.
- 25:36West Texas crude $58.42, which is down 0.3%.
- 25:40And the copper price has, it got very, very close to a year high the other day,
- 25:47a real high anyway, because it had a couple of spikes, which were to be taken
- 25:53off the graph But anyway, it's
- 25:55$4.97 a pound at the moment, was $5.20 a pound a couple of days ago.
- 25:59That's commodities.
- 26:01S&P 500.
- 26:03After some good bank results, 67.42, up 0.8%.
- 26:09The U.S.
- 26:1110-year bond price, 4.01%, just about to break its big figure from 4 to 3.
- 26:17The South African 10-year bond.
- 26:19is maybe going to go from 9 to 8.
- 26:22It's 9.04 at the moment.
- 26:25Really good performances in bonds.
- 26:27You could have bought gold.
- 26:28You could have bought bonds.
- 26:30You could have bought Bitcoin.
- 26:32I mean, you could have bought the stock market.
- 26:34Four things all going up together.
- 26:36I've never seen that skulk.
- 26:38Bitcoin, $111,180 per coin.
- 26:43That's down 1.5%, underperforming.
- 26:46I'm exhausted after all that.
- 26:48Do you hear what I just said, Scalp?
- 26:51Four asset classes that don't always go in the same direction, going in the same
- 26:56direction.
- 26:58Bonds, stocks, gold, and let's leave out Bitcoin because it wasn't there during the
- 27:02good old days.
- 27:04Three in a row.
- 27:06That's ridiculous.
- 27:08There we go.
- 27:10You could have written all those asset classes on a piece of paper, put it in a
- 27:12dartboard, throw the dart,
- 27:14and you would have made money.
- 27:16It doesn't matter which and where it landed.
- 27:18Yeah, there's definitely some optimism today from a US point of view.
- 27:20I mean, you and I have been talking about it Friday.
- 27:23It was just as if all hell broke loose.
- 27:26I mean, Trump went like, I'm going to be really tough on China.
- 27:33I'm going to increase their tariffs and it's going to be beautiful.
- 27:38I love it when he says, I don't want to hurt China.
- 27:41I want China to do well.
- 27:43I've got a great relationship with President Xi.
- 27:46And then he says, by the way, 100% on everything.
- 27:50He's such a nitwit, that man.
- 27:55And then I think 24 hours, because then Friday, all hell broke loose.
- 28:00We had markets and I was sort of going like, yes, at last,
- 28:04because I have some cash that I need to deploy.
- 28:07And it's just tough to deploy it in a market environment that's just, as you
- 28:12mentioned, where everything just goes up.
- 28:14There's no specific asset class that's standing out as a, oh, this is a great
- 28:18opportunity.
- 28:20And markets retraced.
- 28:21And 24 hours later, he tweeted.
- 28:24He didn't even come out with some statement.
- 28:27He tweeted.
- 28:28He says, no, don't worry.
- 28:29China will be OK.
- 28:31China will be fine.
- 28:32The taco's back.
- 28:34People forgot about the taco factor.
- 28:37Trump always chickens out, in other words.
- 28:40But he's checking it out again, but this time it only took him 12 hours to check it
- 28:43out.
- 28:44Literally 12 hours.
- 28:45And how the markets reacted.
- 28:48So the model, the story again, reiterated to me,
- 28:52was currently the political decision, specifically in the U.S.,
- 28:59is now being dictated by market movements.
- 29:02I'm 100%.
- 29:04Because we've seen it.
- 29:05We've seen it in April, Liberation Day speech.
- 29:09We've done that and it was just like it was tough.
- 29:13Man, are we going to take you to town on tariffs?
- 29:17And then markets.
- 29:19got very, very close to really correcting.
- 29:21I think it did in some senses.
- 29:24S&P was down 17%, I think, in three days.
- 29:27There we go.
- 29:28So there was a proper, proper, proper correction.
- 29:30And then he backed down.
- 29:32So clearly markets are dictating the political decisions.
- 29:37But I think today it's more, I think, the Powell show.
- 29:41I mean, Powell did come out.
- 29:43And it's funny how the market actually took what he said as What has he said,
- 29:49please?
- 29:50Tell us what he said.
- 29:52He actually came out and he said that there's no real indication that things
- 30:00are changing in terms of the US economy.
- 30:04But he just said, but cautioned that a notably softer labor market is emerging.
- 30:11And we've seen it in some of these.
- 30:13these data releases recently.
- 30:15Yeah, we haven't got the data anymore because the government's shut down.
- 30:18But as soon as the government comes out, we might get the non-farm payrolls and we
- 30:24might get the ADP numbers as well.
- 30:26And we also might be able to go to Yosemite National Park to have a look at
- 30:32the animals.
- 30:34Everything's closed down in America.
- 30:36No, exactly.
- 30:38It's still government shutdown.
- 30:40But I mean, what I want to get to is The market took his...
- 30:41let's call it his caution towards a notably softer labor market
- 30:49as dovish.
- 30:50And the CME FedWatch tool suddenly went from, ah, it was positive.
- 30:57But now, as we said here, 97%
- 31:00probability that we'll see a rate cut again on the 10th of December.
- 31:05Okay.
- 31:05So there we go.
- 31:07Don't be best against that one.
- 31:09It's the second one after that.
- 31:11that is the important one.
- 31:13What have we got?
- 31:14September and December.
- 31:14But anyway, Skulk, I'm getting thirsty.
- 31:17So let's get on to the moves up and down on the JSC.
- 31:21MTN, the big winner today, up 8%.
- 31:24Rishwan up 5.5%.
- 31:25Harmony, 4.5%.
- 31:27Advertech, a 3.6% gainer.
- 31:29And Capitech up 3.2%.
- 31:31Downside, ACI is not on my screen, but I'm going to say 8.8% down for that one.
- 31:37Karoo, though.
- 31:38Down 9.8%.
- 31:39That was a nervous laugh, by the way.
- 31:41Carew with Five O's shareholders.
- 31:44Growth Point down nearly 6%.
- 31:46AVI down 4.5%.
- 31:48Fortress B down 4.4%.
- 31:49And Nepi Rock Castle down 2.3%.
- 31:52Property stocks in there, Skunk.
- 31:53Any ex-divs you should tell me about?
- 31:56Yeah, yeah.
- 31:57Fortress and Growth Point, both ex-divs stories for today.
- 32:01Okay, good.
- 32:02Because that would have sort of soured your gold euphoria.
- 32:07A little bit.
- 32:08Any other stocks that you've got that I didn't mention?
- 32:11No, I think you've mentioned all.
- 32:13We talked about the winners.
- 32:15We talked about the losers.
- 32:16Good.
- 32:17So give us the closing JSC indices, if you would.
- 32:20So the JSC today closed at 111,635 points.
- 32:27I mean, it takes me longer to read the market.
- 32:31I think they should have a 10 for 1 split or something like that.
- 32:34And that's up 69 basis points for today.
- 32:38Most of the gainers came from the industrial side.
- 32:40That was up 1.2%, while resources were up again
- 32:440.63%. Financials were slightly in the green, 0.2%.
- 32:48But as mentioned, the property stocks did retrace a little bit today, down 2.1%. We
- 32:55look at the value trade,
- 32:57not a bad day at all.
- 32:58We've surpassed $30 billion today.
- 33:00$32 billion traded on the JSC today.
- 33:03I mean, it's been solid, Lindsay.
- 33:04I mean, you know, often...
- 33:06had these conversations on the value traded on the market.
- 33:09I mean, this is now the second time this week alone where we've surpassed the $32
- 33:15billion trade.
- 33:17And I think most of, when I look back, past, let's go to five trading days,
- 33:22the average for the past five trading days was just shy of $29 billion.
- 33:26Okay, just finally, because we're running over time, JSE Limited, what's it done?
- 33:33today and what has it done over the last month or so, if you would?
- 33:38Because these numbers you're talking about, 32 billion,
- 33:41must be filtering through to the numbers for the JSE itself.
- 33:46Yeah, that's a really interesting question that you're having there because, I mean,
- 33:53we know that Dr.
- 33:53Leila Farid,
- 33:55she's now announced that she's going to step down as the CEO of the JSE.
- 34:01And.
- 34:02And immediately I went and said, well,
- 34:05she started at Tenor as a CEO on the 1st of October
- 34:112019.
- 34:13And over that period, just for interest sake,
- 34:16the JSE All Share has improved or has grown.
- 34:22By 153%.
- 34:26So, yeah, that will be good.
- 34:27She can't take credit for that.
- 34:29But where's the JSE limited?
- 34:30That's the one.
- 34:32JSE, however, over that same period has only grown 57%.
- 34:37So it's an 8% growth per annum versus the JSE's growth by 17%.
- 34:43And we know why.
- 34:44We know that we've only seen volumes pick up.
- 34:50over the past few months.
- 34:52And yeah, hopefully that will turn.
- 34:54I do think that there might be some opportunity.
- 34:56That might be something to look at, definitely.
- 34:58Okay, great.
- 34:59We'll keep an eye on that for the remainder of this quarter.
- 35:03Meanwhile, Skulk, we'll reconvene this time next week.
- 35:07And where will the gold price be?
- 35:09Should we have a guess?
- 35:10No, no, no.
- 35:10Let's not spoil it.
- 35:11Let's not get into that guessing game and who got it right, who got it wrong.
- 35:14Because we're both going to get it wrong.
- 35:16We know that.
- 35:16Skulk, thank you very much for your time.
- 35:18When we were young, I just want to say, when we were young, we're getting old,
- 35:21Lindsay.
- 35:22When we were young,
- 35:23there would have been a black label bet on this every day of
- 35:30the week, for sure.
- 35:31Now we're getting old.
- 35:32Now we don't want to even guess.
- 35:35Do you know what?
- 35:37I don't need to guess what the alcohol, the ABV of a black label is.
- 35:41It's 5.5%.
- 35:43And it's delicious as well.
- 35:45And it's relatively cheap.
- 35:46And it's the beer of the people in South Africa.
- 35:48And that was my beer of choice, of course.
- 35:50You know what my beer of choice is now?
- 35:52Well, you wouldn't know.
- 35:53It's called Warsteiner.
- 35:54It's a fine beer, but it's a non-alcoholic beer.
- 35:58But I've sort of beat the system, because if you look at the back, it says less than
- 36:050.5%.
- 36:07So I've worked out if I drink 632 of them, I can get pissed, which is great.
- 36:10LAUGHTER
- 36:14I found a loophole.
- 36:17Skullclaw is a portfolio manager at PSG Wealth Old Oak in Cape Town, and that was
- 36:23the five o'clock shadow.
- 36:25The views and opinions expressed in these podcasts are those of Lindsay Williams and
- 36:31various contributors and do not reflect the policy,
- 36:33position, or opinion of any other agency, organisation, employer,
- 36:35or company associated with StrictlyBusinessPodcast.com.
- 36:40Assumptions made on the analyses are not reflective of the position of any other
- 36:47entity other than the speaker or the author.
- 36:49And since we are critically thinking human beings, these views are always subject to
- 36:52change,
- 36:52revision and rethinking at any time.
- 36:55Please do not hold us to them in perpetuity.