Gilmour's retail review

Good Morning Voornaam,

It was a busy week of retail results, with major financial updates from Massmart, Woolworths and Truworths. Of course, the biggest bombshell of all was the news that Walmart is making an offer for all the shares it doesn't already own in Massmart. With Chris Gilmour's natural interest and expertise in the retail sector, he couldn't resist digging into these results. There are also some great insights from the Truworths results presentation. To get up to speed with the latest news in the retail sector, read this article.

In Ghost Bites this morning, something that I found really interesting is the latest results from Cognition Holdings. This illiquid stock is controlled by Caxton, so there's a way to get indirect exposure to the group. Of course, there are many other things in Caxton, so you certainly can't buy it just because of the Cognition link. Still, it looks like Cognition's value is nearly R250 million (based on cash, the Private Property stake and liabilities other than trade payables) even if you ignore everything else in the group. The market cap is less than R177 million. Juicy, isn't it?

For this and other updates, including a view from Fortress REIT on what life might be like as a property fund rather than a REIT, read Ghost Bites this morning.

Daily market wrap with TreasuryONE

The non-farm payrolls number surprised slightly to the upside, yet not to the extent that the markets went running towards the dollar. Unemployment is still slightly higher, with seasonal jobs falling away during August. After the rand had lost ground for five straight trading days, the payroll number was digested by the market without too many fireworks. Our local currency treaded water around the R17.20 handle.

Gold and Brent Crude also closed slightly higher after the payrolls print.

Although much of the focus has been on the September Fed hike, this week holds an exciting time for the euro. Wednesday will see the Q2 GDP print in the eurozone and the ECB interest rate decision is in the diaries for Thursday. The current expectation is a 50bps hike, so any deviation from this would drive short-term euro volatility.

The US markets are closed today for Labour Day celebrations, so it should be a quiet trading day in the currency market. We could see the rand trading in a narrow range.

Expand your knowledge with podcasts

PS: if you are interested in the M oney Summit being held on 15th September at the Sandton Convention Centre, you can use the code "Ghost" for free entry. You just need to register here. I'm not involved in the summit but I'm happy that Ghost Mail readers are offered free entry!