| The rand actually strengthened yesterday despite more bad news for the local economy and Iran's latest attack on US military bases in Iraq. However, the currency's improvement from Tuesday's close was less to do with our poor manufacturing data for December and more as a result of President Donald Trump's relative restraint following Iran's face-saving response to last week's killing of its top military commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani. With global factors continuing to drive our market, there is little local news to support it. The Absa-sponsored Purchasing Managers' Index continued its abysmal performance in December, providing little hope for the manufacturing sector this year. It is partly due to load shedding, which resulted in downtime at factories. But there is also little local demand and exporters aren't doing much better. There's better news for farmers: Anglo American is pondering an offer for UK fertiliser company Sirius Minerals, which is developing what may be the world's biggest deposit of polyhalite. I've never heard of it, but a quick search revealed that it is a high-grade form of potash, which is used mainly for fertiliser in agriculture. More on that to follow, along with ELB's plans to resuscitate its business as new CEO Charles Pettit takes charge. If the rand's prospects make you nervous, should you invest offshore to diversify your portfolio away from the local economy, which represents less than 1% of the world economy? Click here to find out more about an offshore investing opportunity. Have a good day. Stephen Gunnion Managing Editor, InceConnect | 