Market scorecard
November is done, and it was a good one for global markets. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest monthly advances since July 2022. The S&P 500 climbed 8.9% last month, for its second-best November since 1980, and snapped a three-month losing streak.
In company news, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) jumped 9% yesterday thanks to strong earnings, adding to the 70% it was already up this year. In the negative column, Ford (NYSE:F) dropped 3% after the company reported that its new deal with US labour unions is expected to add $8.8 billion in costs through the life of the deal to 2028. In developed countries with tight labour supply, workers have more bargaining power these days.
Yesterday the JSE All-share rose by 0.39%, the S&P 500 gained 0.38%, and the Nasdaq tried hard in the last hour of trading, but still lost 0.23%.
One thing, from Paul
Yo, it's advice Friday! Here's a new source of good ideas that I haven't shared with you before. My friend Phil Perlman writes a blog called "Prime Cuts". This post is called 20 timeless truths of health and wellbeing.
Here's an example (point 11): Consistency trumps intensity. "Sticking with the good health habits you form forever-and-ever is more important than exercising with insane but unsustainable intensity. You can have a lacklustre workout and you can miss one or two when you are a little achy or exhausted. You just want to make sure you keep coming back and you keep compounding slowly but steadily over the long run."
Here's another (point 1). The elements of good health are simple: "(1) Eat real foods with plenty of protein. (2) Move your body daily. (3) Prioritise sleep and rest when you are tired or achy. (4) Grow strong relationships with your closest people."
Byron's beats
Much is being said about the housing market in Johannesburg. Clearly, a lot of middle-to-high income people are leaving the city which is putting severe downward pressure on the prices of homes. There are pros and cons to this situation.
Lower house prices are very disappointing for those who own homes and want to sell them, and disastrous for the businesses that service the industry such as property agents, conveyancers, banks and builders. But believe it or not, there are some positives too.
Johannesburg is now a lot more affordable for young people looking to secure a first home. In many developed economies it's nearly impossible for the majority of the population to buy a house. They are forced to pay high rentals which consumes a large percentage of their monthly take-home pay. This situation creates big issues in those societies.
Having affordable housing for well-employed professionals has a lot of positive knock on effects. For those fortunate enough to have a stable job and live in Johannesburg, count yourself lucky that you can afford a beautiful home that would most likely be out of your reach somewhere else.
Michael's musings
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is continuing to invest in its gaming division. This isn't an easy sector to break into though, as both Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) learned after introducing gaming offerings of their own, which were shut down after years of minimal growth.
New streaming services are popping up every month, so offering value for money is important. Netflix already spends $18 billion a year on content creation to ensure that they have something for everyone to watch. By adding games, they are trying to make the moat around their business wider.
Earlier this week Netflix announced that subscribers will be able to play Grand Theft Auto from 14 December. GTA is one of the best-selling game franchises around, with sales of over 400 million units since it was first released in 1997. Since then, there have been 7 GTA game iterations, and an 8th was recently announced.
The partnership between Netflix and GTA is good for both parties. Netflix gets a very well-known and popular title for customers to play over the Christmas break, and GTA gets to generate some hype ahead of the launch of its 8th instalment.
Signing off
Asian markets are lower this morning. Maybe taking a breather after a great November?
The price of oil dropped yesterday, even though an OPEC+ meeting seemed to agree on production cuts. There was no usual concluding press conference and final communique, so traders speculated that production cuts might not be coming.
Inflation data from the US yesterday showed a continued slowdown in consumer price pressures. The consensus view is that the Fed is now finished raising rates and that a rate cut will happen in the first half of next year. As a result, the US Dollar has weakened a bit and is trading at $/R18.83.
US Futures are basically flat. They were slightly down when we started writing the newsletter this morning, but now they are slightly up.
Congrats to our colleague Bright, who is getting married tomorrow. Three cows and sheep will be consumed in a big party in Inchanga. Siyakuhalalisela!
Have a good weekend.