Transnet featured prominently on SENS yesterday. Exxaro complained about them and Thungela noted that there's a new agreement in place for rail volumes, before confirming that it actually makes no difference. Meanwhile, Grindrod closed over 8% higher off the back of a cracking trading update at Transnet's expense. The local infrastructure is so bad that many South African companies are now exporting via Mozambique instead, with Grindrod investing heavily in Port Maputo.

Shareholders would've been ready to get the Tipo Tinto out to celebrate Grindrod's share price performance, with a gain of over 130% in the past year. The Tipo Tinto is often a cause of great regret. It doesn't seem likely that the same will apply to Grindrod shareholders, as goodness knows Transnet isn't going to solve its problems overnight.

Curro also released an update yesterday, showing the p ower of operating leverage. As there is such a large fixed cost component to a group of schools, a revenue increase of 15% drove a 31% increase in HEPS. I'm still in the red on my Curro holding but I'm feeling ok about it going forward, notwithstanding a worrying R74 million debtor balance from "inactive accounts" - learners who have left the school. I fear that this is a hangover of Covid lockdowns, with parents unable to pay fees.

Ghost Bites also has details on Fortress' approach to the JSE re: the likely loss of REIT status and earnings updates from Adcock Ingram, Grindrod Shipping, Caxton, Blue Label Telecoms and others.

Magic Markets Premium

In the latest free episode of Magic Markets, we take you on a journey through the research process that we follow in Magic Markets Premium. Every week, we use a tried and tested approach that considers all angles, ranging from bull case vs. bear case to fundamental investment analysis.

You keep hearing about "do your own research" but it doesn't help if you've never been shown how to do that! This is exactly where Magic Markets comes in. Listen to the show at this link and make an investment in yourself with an annual subscription to Magic Markets Premium for R990/year (or R99/month if you want to try it out first). You can subscribe here.

Recap - don't miss this stuff!

• Episode 3 of Ghost Stories features Carel Nolte from EasyEquities and a discussion on the insights from investor behaviour on the platform. With such rich data, there is much to learn here.

• Ghost Grad Kreeti Panday delved into SoftBank, the famous investment group run by Masayoshi Son. The Vision Fund has been taking some rather serious pain lately.

DealMakers

Every Friday, Ghos t Mail welcomes the DealMakers team and their weekly summaries of corporate activity. For example, you can read about the week's M&A activity in South Africa or the other local deals that were announced. The team also covers African deals and includes thought leadership pieces from the industry, in this c ase an article on whether we have reached the point where an ESG officer belongs in the C-suite.

TreasuryONE updates - and another webinar!

The dollar remained on the front foot yesterday after Wednesday night's release of the FOMC minutes. Those minutes confirmed that the Fed will continue to hike rates for as long as inflation remains above the 2% target. The pace and size of the hikes could slow depending on fresh data in coming months. The rand has dipped to the R16.80 mark, giving up all the gains since the US CPI numbers.

The Central Bank of Turkey cut rates by 1% yesterday despite inflation being around the 80% mark! President Erdogan has had great influence on the central bank and it seems like noth ing has changed. European inflation printed in line with expectations, up 8.9% year-on-year. This was the highest print in 19 years!

To get more context to the macroeconomic data and the impact on our currency, read this detailed article from TreasuryONE.

I have some exciting news for you! Next week Thursday at 9am, the TreasuryONE team will be treating us to another excellent webinar. The focus will be on inflation and the threat of recession. The team always leaves time for Q&A, so don't miss it! You can register here.

Have a lovely weekend!