2008 April » Investment Postcards from Cape Town

Archive for April, 2008

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Monday, April 28th, 2008

Emerging market investors neutral on South Africa

By Kevin Lings
The Global Emerging Markets Strategist from Morgan Stanley in London has provided us with updated data on the latest (as of April 22) benchmark weights for the MSCI Emerging Market countries as well as the weight of South Africa in the average dedicated Emerging Market Fund.
As at 22 April South Africa had […]

No Comments » - Posted in South Africa by Prieur du Plessis

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Synonyms for recession

Hat tip: Barry Ritholtz’s The Big Picture

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No Comments » - Posted in Humor by Prieur du Plessis

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (April 21 – 27, 2008)

The last week was characterized by investors increasingly taking the view that the worst of the credit crisis was over. They seemed to be shrugging off further substantiation of the dreadful state of the US housing situation, as they digested the latest round of quarterly earnings reports. Read all about this in my regular weekly blog post, highlighting some thought-provoking news items and quotes from market commentators during the past week.

1 Comment » - Posted in Money, Markets, Investment by Prieur du Plessis

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Poll of the Week: Stock markets – which way José?

It has become an international pastime to try to figure out where in the stock market cycle we are. Let’s try a new approach: I am going to rely on your collective wisdom and ask you to express your opinion on the direction of the stock market. All you need to do is to think about this for a short while and then provide your answers by clicking the appropriate button on two quick polls.

8 Comments » - Posted in Stocks, Money, Markets, Investment by Prieur du Plessis

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Absorbing bad news in waves

By Cees Bruggemans
This is turning out to be a trying month for most emerging markets.
With relative low per capita incomes, their inflation baskets are heavily weighted with food and oil costs.
This has made emerging-market inflation rise much faster than developed-country inflation in response to rapidly increasing commodity prices, moving in most instances well […]

No Comments » - Posted in South Africa by Prieur du Plessis

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (April 14 – 20, 2008)

It’s Earnings, Stupid! Or so it seemed during the past week as the stock market took its cue from a host of better-than-feared earnings reports, propelling the S&P 500 Index 4.3% higher – a bigger gain than for the entire 2007. And what a swift turnaround it was after the market got “GE’d” and was in sackcloth and ashes by the close of the previous week! Read all about this in my regular weekly blog post, highlighting some thought-provoking news items and quotes from market commentators during the past week.

3 Comments » - Posted in Money, Markets, Investment by Prieur du Plessis

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

Bonjour Geneva

I will be visiting Geneva later this week, sussing out the gnomes for words of wisdom on financial markets. I will be there on Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25 and still have a few slots on my schedule for anybody wishing to share money-making ideas (and enjoy a glass of wine next to Lac Léman).

No Comments » - Posted in Travel, Investment by Prieur du Plessis

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Why are financials so cheap?

By Shaun le Roux
There is overwhelming consensus among local fund managers that the domestic financials, particularly banks, are cheap. They are almost certainly right, but may have to be patient before their overweight position pays off.
In global financial markets, financials have borne the brunt of the turmoil in equities. Small wonder. Giant global banks have […]

No Comments » - Posted in South Africa by Prieur du Plessis

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Soaring inflation creates headwind for long bonds

US long bonds are at an important point of resolve as investors seem to have started focusing more strongly on the inflation outlook rather than on economic growth considerations. Tread carefully as bonds could be topping out.

6 Comments » - Posted in Money, Markets, Investment, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Rising prices for slow snails

Magazine covers, especially as far as international publications are concerned, frequently get their timing wrong on “big picture” events. As such, covers are often used as contrarian indicators. Intuitively it does not seem that this will be the plight of the cover of the latest Economist, but let’s keep an eye on how events unfold. Please read on …