To market to market to buy a fat pig. The 3Q GDP read from the US came in better than expected, with a read of 3% growth; we would love to get growth of even half that! This makes it the second quarter in a row where the US economy has grown by more than 3%. The strong growth will no doubt be a consideration for Janet Yellen and her team when the Fed meets this week. The market is still pricing in a third rate hike for 2017, either at this weeks meeting or their December meeting.
Market Scorecard. Wow! Tech was on fire on Friday; the share prices that is, not the electrical burning smell you get when you try play a game that your PC can't handle. The Dow was up 0.14%, the S&P 500 was up 0.81%, the Nasdaq was up 2.2% and the All-Share was up 0.24%. The weak Rand has been a huge tail wind for our dual listed stocks with Naspers, Richemont, Gelncore and AB-inbev all at 12-month highs; the first three stocks at all-time highs. The Nasdaq's surge is due to Amazon and Alphabet(Google) beating expectations with their results, they were up 13.2% and up 4.2% respectively.
Amazon's impact is being felt across the US. In contrast to the tech stocks, JC Penney cut its guidance for when it reports on the 10 November, pushing the share to an all-time low and taking its YTD decline to 62%. Another sector bracing for the impact of an Amazonian tidal wave is the 'retail pharma' companies. CVS (think Dischem of the US) has made a bid for Aetna, a US heath insurer, in an effort to try cut costs so that they can be competitive when Amazon arrives en mass to their industry (CVS bid for Aetna: A $66 billion bet on cutting drug costs).
Linkfest, lap it up
One thing, from Paul
This week on Blunders: SA Government finances are in a pickle, 25-year old is the "face" of Dior anti-ageing cream, cats are big in Japan, and KFC is only following 11 herbs and spices on Twitter - Blunders - Episode 77
Michael's Musings
For the rapid creation of wealth, there needs to be strong economic growth and more importantly, you need to be investing in a young disruptive industry - One billionaire created every two days in Asia.
In order to bring down costs and become more accessible to a greater number of people, airliner configurations have become more cramped over time - Vintage photos show what air travel looked like in every decade. Would you rather spend 13-hours in the below configuration or current configurations, which includes in flight entertainment and wi-fi?
Given that Tokyo has some of the highest property prices in the world, the following headline caught my eye - Abandoned land in Japan will be the sizeof Austria by 2040. Location and bureaucracy seem to be the main culprits, more interesting is that only 10% of home sales in Japan are for second-hand homes.
Amazon is a monster, have a look at the size of its workforce. As one market commentator said, they are now the size of a small country - Amazon's Workforce Grows at an Unprecedented Rate.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog. Asian stocks are mostly lower today, our market is bouncing between red and green. Nothing much on the data front today, this week holds the Fed Meeting though. Then company results to look forward to in the coming days are, Apple, Facebook and Tesla.
Sent to you by Team Vestact.
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