Euro and pound probe multi-month highs while Yen hovers near 160 zone
Market scorecard
US markets booked their fifth straight week of gains, although it was only an advance of 0.8% and 0.4% for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, respectively. A win is a win, and we will take it!
In company news, Fisker, an electric car company, jumped 9.5% after it said that it decided to cut December production to free up more than $300 million of liquidity. Eish, surely cutting production isn't ideal? Elsewhere, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) dropped 5% on the news that it has suspended trials of an experimental weight-loss pill. The stock is now down over 50% from the Covid highs. Locally, Tiger Brands (JO:TBSJ) went down by 1.4% after muted results, but new CEO Tjaart Kruger says he has a plan to get the company moving again.
On Friday the JSE All-share closed up 0.23%, the S&P 500 advanced by 0.59%, and the Nasdaq nailed the final session of the week, moving higher by 0.55%.
One thing, from Paul
James Pethokoukis works at the American Enterprise Institute and is a former business journalist. He just published a book, "The Conservative Futurist", which makes the case that dynamic capitalism can unlock a new age of technological progress and abundance. You can order it for your Kindle, on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), here
One of his prominent ideas is that humanity should create a permanent base on the moon. He says: "If we can go to the moon, stay there, do things like mine for water, or rocket fuel, or helium-3, which could be used for fusion energy, it would be a great proof of concept."
That sounds good to me too. This would feed well into the business case for SpaceX, which we hope will come to market in due course.
Michael's musings
UBS publishes an annual report with insights from its mega-rich clients. You can read it here, it's now on its ninth year - Billionaire ambitions report 2023.
For the first time since the report started, more wealth was gained by clients through inheritance than through self-made means. 53 heirs inherited $150.8 billion from deceased relatives, slightly higher than the $140.7 billion brought in by 84 new self-made billionaires.
For me, the more significant number is that UBS has 84 new self-made billionaire clients, significantly more than the 53 new trust-fund babies. The self-made people are the ones pushing the world forward.
Another noteworthy statistic from the report relates to the wealth transfer expected over the next three decades. UBS estimates that more than 1 000 billionaires will die in the next 20 to 30 years, and that their children will inherit $5.2 trillion.
This isn't only a superrich trend though. In developed countries, people are richer than previous generations and have smaller families, meaning more money for their heirs. Wealth is being concentrated, and inheritances will play a significant role in consumer spending and personal financial health in decades to come.
Signing off
Asian markets are mixed this morning. Shares of distressed developer China Evergrande Group surged by 22% after a Hong Kong court again postponed a decision on whether the world's most-indebted property developer should be wound up.
This week we'll see quarterly earnings numbers out from athleisure wear-maker Lululemon and meme-stonk GameStop (NYSE:GME). On Friday, the US releases monthly non-farm employment data, which will give us an updated idea of how well that economy is faring.
US futures are currently pointing towards a negative open this afternoon. Our Rand is holding steady at $/R 18.66 this morning.
Are you ready for the last full 5-day work week before the December holidays? Give it horns, finish the year strong!
