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Good morning Voornaam,

Fresh out the oven:

Ghost Bites: Pick n Pay is in a fight for survival. Tiger Brands made a brave dividend decision. Barloworld is loving Mongolia. Alphamin, Collins Property, Datatec, Exemplar, Mantengu Mining and RH Bophelo also released updates. Get it all in Ghost Bites>>>
Dominique Olivier brings you five tales from the AI world that will educate, thrill and quite possibly shock you. From unethical labour practices through to ghostly appearances by Katy Perry at major events, the future is increasingly looking like an AI experiment. Read it here>>>

Walmart is going back to its roots and Under Armour is in the battle of its life, with the founder back in the CEO role and taking the brand back to its core strengths. Listen to Magic Markets episode 176 to get the latest on these stories and expand your investment horizons.

In case you missed it:

Ghost Wrap: You need barely four minutes to get up to speed on KAL Group, AB InBev, Redefine, RFG Holdings and Calgro M3, brought to you by Mazars. Listen to it here>>>

This is a massive election year, with over 60 nations going to the polls. On the latest Investec No Ordinary Wednesday podcast, Investec Wealth & Investment Chief Investment Strategist Chris Holdsworth shared his insights on the election outcomes that matter most to markets. Listen to the show here>>>
With elections around the corner, managing your behavioural bias is so important. In other words: don't panic! Kingsley Williams of Satrix elaborates in this article>>>
CA Sales Holdings recently presented on Unlock the Stock and engaged in a vibrant Q&A with attendees. This stock has been a top performer. To understand why, watch the event here.

LISTEN: Chasing Returns from the Sun

Not only can you invest in solar, but you can do it with the benefit of tax-enhanced returns thanks to current government policy. Tivon Loubser of Grovest joined me to discuss this. (full transcript included) Listen to the podcast here>>>

Local company news:

Pick n Pay needs all the help it can get right now. At the very least, load shedding needs to stay away to give the battered retailer a chance to recover. With Shoprite looking stronger than ever and Pick n Pay bleeding in the corner of the ring, it's not impossible that we will see a knockout blow. The latest results at Pick n Pay show just how bad it is, with the Ackerman family relinquishing control and stepping off the board to allow Sean Summers to try and save this thing with the support of the banks as underwriters of the capital raise.

Over at Tiger Brands, growth is also very hard to come by. This hasn't stopped them from raising the dividend, even though income from associates was the main highlight on the income statement as opposed to growth in the core business. New management is in place across the divisions, so much focus will be on this next reporting period.

At Barloworld, the decline in earnings at group level looks fairly tame. A deeper look at the segments reveals how volatile the businesses can be, which is why diversification is so important.

We also saw updates come in from Alphamin, Collins Property Group (brace yourself for their loan-to-value target), Datatec, Exemplar, Mantengu Mining and RH Bophelo.

Get all the details in Ghost Bites at this link>>>

Short stories v.01: the future is an AI experiment

Unethical labour practices. Hollywood stars who either appear magically or seem to have their voices copied. Oh, and how about your late grandmother selling you a premium subscription? Welcome to the chaos of AI, as told by Dominique Olivier in this piece>>>

Why are Silicon Valley valuations higher?

Everyone knows that Silicon Valley is the home of tech and therefore many tech start-ups. But what does this mean for their valuations? And what can we learn about how regions affect company values? I explored this topic in this article for bizval.

International business news:

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has raised $6bn in series B funding, taking the post-money valuation to $24 billion. The big names in VC lined up for this thing, like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Generative AI is all the rage at the moment, with Musk having the advantage of being able to read data on X (previously Twitter). As a highly enthusiastic user of that platform, I'm mildly terrified of what the AI might read and learn.

If you think that the recent Google AI disaster was bad - it turns out that AI doesn't understand satire very well - then just wait for what Grok (the name of the Musk chatbot) might learn off X.

If youre looking for a recipe for pizza, then be careful of Google recommending that you add glue to the cheese to make it more sticky. I wish I was joking.

We just covered payments giant Mastercard in Magic Markets Premium. To get access to this research and the rest of the vast library, subscribe to the platform here.

Macroeconomic Update

With major markets closed yesterday, currency markets drifted sideways. Over in Japan, the 10-year treasury yield reached the 1% mark for the first time since 2013 last week, driven by expectations of more tightening by the Bank of Japan and lacklustre 40-year bond sales.

The election in South Africa is tomorrow of course, with the rand likely to tread water today as markets take a cautious approach. Investors are keenly watching for a stable coalition outcome to avoid ideological swings.

Key indicators: USD/ZAR R18.35; US 10-year 4.46%; Gold $2,352; Platinum ZAR R19,457; Brent Crude $83.28

This macroeconomic update is based on TreasuryONE's morning update.