Further losses on the cards for the rand

South Africa’s rand reversed gains against the dollar on Thursday, after investors put behind them a recent raft of soft U.S. data to still price in the prospect of higher rates in the world’s biggest economy.

Good news for Naspers – Tencent discount “getting harder to justify”

Tencent’s discount to Facebook is getting harder to justify. The Chinese social media giant brought in roughly the same amount of revenue as its U.S. counterpart last year and was more profitable. Yet it trades at a lower multiple of earnings. The valuation gap warrants a rethink.

Arduous search for victims of Germanwings crash continues

Germanwings budget flight 4U9525, carrying 144 passengers including 16 German teenagers returning home from a school trip, plunged for eight minutes before hitting the side of a mountain in the French Alps Tuesday with no survivors.

Eskom cancels blackouts

South African power utility Eskom said on Tuesday it had canceled rolling blackouts it had earlier said were needed, because it had fixed technical faults on some of its generators.

oil

Cees Bruggemans: Risk 2015 reconsidered

We tend to handle complexity through organisation and planning. In the process, much becomes familiar and expected, to the point of believing we have the situation under control. Meanwhile, only a small corner of a much greater universe of events have been so contained.

Seven losing weeks for oil price, plumbs fresh five year lows

By Florence Tan | Reuters SINGAPORE, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Oil prices were heading for a seventh weekly loss on Friday, with key producers showing no signs of cutting output in the face of a global supply glut. Brent and U.S. crude futures both hit their lowest since 2009 this week and are down more … Read more