Gold gains on hopes for Iran peace deal, but falls for the week on rate jitters
Market Scorecard
US markets soared yesterday, because President Trump announced that his war with Iran had ended, for the 39th time. Speaking of soaring, SpaceX will trade publicly today. Very exciting!
In other company news, chipmaker Intel rose 9.3% after an upgrade from analysts at Bank of America. Elsewhere, design software company Adobe fell 6.3% ahead of quarterly earnings, then plummeted another 5.5% when they hit the wires (due to worries about competition from AI). Finally, Eli Lilly continues to power higher, now up 43.6% in the last 12 months, compared to competitor Novo Nordisk, which is down 44.2% in the same period.
At the close, the JSE All-share climbed 0.60%, the S&P 500 marched 1.75% higher, and the Nasdaq flew up 2.54%. Well, that’s just great.
One Thing, From Paul
Here’s some Friday advice: keep it short.
In line with that suggestion, here’s a picture that I saw online, and customised. It’s a reminder to the 4 of us here at Vestact to keep our content brief and punchy, because our readers (you) are pressed for time, and might be distracted.
Haha, lol. You are probably driving right now, you have Charli XCX on your windscreen, and Barack Obama in your rearview mirror. And your mailbox is full.
Over and out!
Michael’s Musings
Elon Musk is dreaming about putting massive data centres into space. Meanwhile, the Chinese have just launched an undersea data centre, powered by a nearby windfarm. It isn’t very big, only 24 megawatts, and is pictured here when it was under construction.
Being underwater helps to keep the data centre cool, consuming about 20% less electricity. Doing routine maintenance on something 10 meters below the surface does sound challenging.
According to The Guardian, Microsoft did something similar in the seas off the coast of Scotland in 2018. They reported positive results two years later, but then the project just fizzled out. Maybe technology has advanced enough over the last five years that another attempt will yield better results.
Bright’s Banter
Dutch chip equipment maker ASML is now Europe’s most valuable company, worth about $740 billion at last night’s close. That surpasses Novo Nordisk’s previous record value and is ahead of giants like SAP, HSBC and Roche. Its share price has climbed 77.5% this year.
ASML doesn’t design AI chips, build data centres or develop AI models. Instead, it sells the machines that make the world’s most advanced semiconductors.
Every advanced chip produced by TSMC or Samsung relies on ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography systems. These machines cost a fortune, so their customers, like TSMC tend to push back on major price hikes.
If you like investing in the chip supply chain, this is another one to consider, along with TSMC. Of course, we prefer to just stick with the big daddy, Nvidia.
Signing Off
In Asia, markets are rallying on the news that the Iranians think war is over too. Alibaba and JD.com fell yesterday after Chinese regulators criticised major e-commerce platforms for misleading promotional practices, but both rose today.
In local company news, Bell Equipment announced that CEO Ashley Bell has resigned and will be replaced by Izak van Niekerk. The leadership change comes two years after minority shareholders rejected the Bell family’s R5 billion bid to take the company private.
The Rand is trading at around R16.32 to the US Dollar.
US equity futures are slightly higher pre-market. By nightfall, our fellow South African, Elon Musk, will probably be the world’s first trillionaire.
You have yourself a good day too.