Some really powerful reminders of late that politicians sometimes need to be taken at their word. In SA, the furore around Joburg Metro governance is a lesson that the PA’s controversial leader Gayton McKenzie means what he says. Ditto the DA’s self-styled ‘rottweiler’ Natasha Mazzone who has tired of warning seditious Julius Malema and now wants him behind bars.
But compared with ructions in China, that’s small beer. Over the weekend, president Xi succeeded where Thabo Mbeki failed in Polokwane – got the rules changed to grant himself a third term, making him as powerful as the murderous Mao. But instead of a ‘cultural revolution’, Xi is massacring Chinese business, especially its internet giants.
This is really bad news for South African listed Naspers and Prosus. Over the past five days, the stocks mirrored a 20% plunge in the price of their Hong Kong-listed foundation holding Tencent. As one of the elephants in the crosshairs of Xi’s “common prosperity” policy, Tencent has not just gone ex-growth. It is now slashing costs in an effort to survive.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___What an authoritarian regime giveth, it is equally capable of taking away. Best investors remember that next time they’re given official warning. As Xi did a couple years ago.
More for you to read today:
- Shares in Chinese companies crash after Xi Jinping stacks party with allies. US-listed Chinese stocks plunged to their lowest level in nearly a decade, one day after Xi Jinping secured a third term as leader of the Communist Party.
- Alphabet, Microsoft lead bear-market earnings season. Shares of Meta have lost 61%, their biggest drop since the company went public a decade ago. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are set for their steepest declines since the global financial crisis.
- Putin’s threats worry Ukraine’s NATO allies as sign of Russian desperation. Ukraine’s allies are concerned that desperation in the Kremlin over an unrelenting string of battlefield failures may lead Russia to escalate its war.
- US Fed is losing billions, wiping out profits that funded spending. Rapidly mounting red ink at the US Fed Reserve and many peers risks becoming more than just an accounting oddity.
- Dow closes at highest level in six weeks. Last week, the Dow Jones notched its best three-week stretch since November 2020, offering investors a reprieve from the selling pressure that has whipsawed portfolios this year.
- Newly restructured BizNews Share Portfolio is off to a cracking start in October. The BizNews share portfolio was significantly restructured last month and so far it’s off to a cracking start, outperforming its benchmarks in October by achieving just under 5% growth for the month.
Fighting talk! The challenger to the Supreme Limelight Taker and Gucci’s Favourite Customer – the yacht-cruising Mr Julius Malema – is none other than the DA’s Ms Natasha Mazzone, who is gloves off and ready to go. It’s the metaphorical equivalent of Muhammed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard; one all mouth and insult and the other usually more discreet but determined to be equally menacing. Natasha Mazzone, the DA Shadow Minister of State Security is shouldering her way into the public spotlight, hitting Malema in all his vulnerable spots and hoping to elicit a response, ideally a public debate. I’d buy a ticket tomorrow. She’s reporting Malema to the South African Security Agency for subversion, terrorism, sabotage and organised crime while challenging him to a debate to clear up what he means by his threats and utterances. You could say she’s the archetype of the privileged white madam; the kind that this privileged black diamond detests. Should be fun! C’mon Julius.
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