Record earnings for Samsung, and crackdown on spam calls in South Africa

The rand was trading at R16.63 against the US dollar on the morning of Thursday, 8 October 2026, weakening slightly after three days of consecutive recoveries.

South African equities posted sharp declines yesterday, with the JSE All Share Index dropping 1.63% and the Top 40 Index dropping 1.75%.

Gross foreign exchange reserves eased to $75.43 billion in September, down from $75.95 billion in August, on the back of valuation adjustments and government payments.

Moody’s Ratings has adopted a positive assessment of sub-Saharan African sovereign credit conditions over the next 12 to 18 months.

On Wall Street, stocks ended their recent winning streaks as Treasury yields raised inflation and government debt concerns.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq regressed from record highs, dropping 0.22% each, while the Dow Jones dropped by 0.66%.

In Europe, markets pulled back sharply on Wednesday after three consecutive sessions of gains, with the STOXX 600 falling 1.0% and the CAC 40 by 1.2%.

Rising oil prices and sovereign bond yields weighed on investor confidence, even as German industrial production expanded 2% in August.

Asian indices declined on Thursday under pressure from sovereign bond markets, with the Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 dropping 0.62% and 0.92%, respectively.

Japan reported a higher-than-expected current account surplus in August, reaching ¥4.062 trillion and signalling positive economic growth.

In the commodities market, Brent crude oil rose to $102 per barrel as US stockpiles decline, while gold rebounded to $4,134.39 per ounce.

On Thursday morning, the rand was trading at R16.63 to the US dollar, R18.64 to the euro, and R21.97 to the British pound.

Important finance and investing news

$70,000 fees for international students: The US Department of Homeland Security has proposed charging international, non-immigrant students with F-1 visas in the United States a $70,000 training fee if they wish to work in the country, alongside $30,000 for any additional training. [Reuters]

OpenAI on its biggest rival’s heels: While Anthropic edged to the front of the AI race earlier this year on the back of strong demand for its Claude Code tool, its biggest rival, OpenAI, has caught up and is now hot on its heels. Both companies now need to show investors they have sustainable business models ahead of their public IPOs. [Wall Street Journal]

Africa welcomes continental credit rating agency: Almost a decade after first being proposed, the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) launched yesterday to address what African governments regard as unfair assessments of their borrowing risk. The agency is headquartered in Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. [BusinessDay]

Record earnings for Samsung: Samsung estimates its operating profit for the three months to the end of September at 107.4 trillion won, its fourth consecutive quarter of record earnings. The company expected a nine-fold surge in quarterly profits compared with a year earlier, driven by surging demand for memory chips used in AI data centres. [Yahoo Finance]

Crack down on spam calls in South Africa: The National Consumer Commission has launched an opt-out registry, which will allow South Africans to stop any unwanted marketing calls. The regulation was introduced under the Consumer Protection Act in April this year. Spam calls reached 17 billion during the first six months of the year, a 25.2% increase from the same period last year. [EWN]