The BizNews Premium Podcast: Premium Briefing Ep 6 – Alec’s essential market overview
Why US shares saw their best three-week run since 2020 and the importance of the 10 year US treasury yield seeing its own streak for the first time since 1970. Also, the context behind the biggest winners on the JSE: Orion Minerals, Sappi, Standard Bank and Novus. And the not-so-hot with Murray & Roberts still in the spotlight, as well as Labat, Pick n Pay, Raubex and Telkom. We end off the show with the top podcasts on BizNews Radio for the week: Kokkie Kooyman, Gayton McKenzie, and Jooste family trust Trustee, Rian du Plessis.
All being well, I’ll be conducting a live interview with global energy expert KW Miller this afternoon. It is the first time this outspoken critic of Eskom is prepared to go public, almost three years after our paths first crossed. My gut suggests it may prove to have been worth the wait.
In December 2019, we published a hard-hitting report by Miller’s Abu Dhabi-based CRO Advisors which, in short, concluded Eskom was so corrupt and operationally dysfunctional it couldn’t be saved. The report said Eskom needed a forensic audit to properly understand the scale of the problem, then massive restructuring – free of political interference.
After the article was published, BizNews was pilloried on social media by reporters from rival titles (and their go-to source, ANC insider Prof Anton Eberhard) claiming we had published disinformation from a fake source. We temporarily pulled the piece, until I’d engaged directly with Miller. His credentials stood up and the suspension lifted. But it ended there because at that point he turned down my request for an on-the-record interview.
With hindsight, everyone would have been much better off had SA listened to him three years ago. After Miller published a hard hitting video on Friday, he emailed the link, adding “the wheels have come completely off at Eskom, the power plants are a disaster and on the verge of complete collapse.” Later today we get to hear his proposed rescue plan.
PS. If you haven’t registered for this month’s BizNews Share Portfolio webinar yet, you can do so here. It’s at 12h00 tomorrow, the 25th of October.
More for you to read today:
- Fed set to raise rates by 0.75 point and debate size of future hikes. Officials are raising rates at the most aggressive pace since the early 1980s. Until June, they hadn’t raised rates by 0.75 point since 1994. Investors in interest-rate futures markets now expect the Fed to raise rates to 5% by the spring.
- Global bond yields reach key milestones as rate-hike bets mount. The collective central-banking pivot from stimulus to tightening is placing strains on governments and economies around the world. Resurgent Treasury yields have also helped fuel dollar strength, driving currencies such as the yen to levels unseen against the greenback in over 30 years.
- Putin’s war in Ukraine may destroy Russia. All of the factors paint a grim picture with clear implications: Rather than resurrecting his country’s greatness, Mr. Putin might be presiding over the collapse of the last Russian empire.
- Toxic workplaces are bad for mental and physical health. People are asking themselves what they want out of work and what they are willing to sacrifice for work.
- Portugal is attracting wealthy surfers with new upscale options in idyllic Ericeira. You might think of surfers as beach bums happy to camp in a tent on the beach. Now, though, the sport has matured and there are plenty of well-heeled, white-collar participants, including the likes of Richard Branson and Barack Obama.
- Court order documents: Markus Jooste and Lanzerac. The South African Reserve Bank has now acted against Jooste after obtaining a court order to attach certain assets.
The subject of this interview, Rian du Plessis, says he remains close to ostracised former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste and is well known in SA business circles, as a former executive at RMB, and CEO of two JSE-listed groups Comparex and Phumelela. Du Plessis also serves as one of two external trustees on the Jooste family trust Silveroak, in which capacity he was named in the Anton Pillar court order requested by and granted to the SA Reserve Bank, resulting in this week’s raid on Jooste’s assets. He explains to Alec Hogg of BizNews why the SARB’s raid was such a surprise, what the attachment of Jooste-owned properties, motor vehicles, art, furniture and Mrs J’s jewellery actually means – and what comes next. Du Plessis also shares his perspective after watching the Steinheist mini-series, currently airing on Showmax.
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