One South African CEO making R272,000 a day, and Trump sells access to his tweets

The rand weakened against the United States dollar on Monday, 10 August, and was trading 0.1% lower against the greenback on Tuesday morning.

South African markets closed in the green on Friday, 7 August, buoyed by gains in mining sector stocks. This saw the JSE All Share index advance 1.9%.

The biggest movers were gold miners AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold Mining, and Pan African Resources, which gained 9.7%, 8.8%, 7.3%, and 4.7%, respectively.

They were closely followed by platinum miners, including Impala Platinum, Valterra Platinum, and Northam Platinum, which rose 3.8%, 2.7%, and 1.4%, respectively.

Some real estate companies, including Sirius Real Estate, Shaftesbury Capital, and Hammerson, did not perform as well, declining by 3.2%, 2.4%, and 1.5%, respectively. 

Similarly, food companies RCL Foods and Famous Brands dropped 2.3% and 1.4%, respectively.

Unlike the JSE, US markets ended lower on Friday, as fading expectations that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened and a sharp rise in oil prices heightened inflation concerns. 

The S&P 500 index fell 0.1%, the DJIA declined 0.1%, and the NASDAQ eased 0.3%.

In particular, Intel Corporation declined 4.1% after announcing a $15 billion share sale to fund its contract manufacturing expansion. 

NVIDIA also dropped 2.9% after partnering with six major financial institutions to raise $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure financing.

However, oil and natural gas shot up, with Diamondback Energy and Devon Energy Corporation advancing 5.8% and 5.5%, respectively.

On the morning of Tuesday, 11 August, Brent crude oil rose 0.2% to trade at $87.88 per barrel. This comes after the oil price rose 5% on Monday to $87.72 per barrel.

The rand was trading at R16.20 per US dollar, R18.70 against the euro, and R21.90 against the British pound on Tuesday morning.

Important finance and investing news

Trump sells his tweets: US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform revealed that more than 10 customers have signed up to a real-time feed of top Truth Social accounts. Truth API provides customers with machine-readable feeds from popular accounts within milliseconds, giving customers faster access to public information. [Wall Street Journal]

Joburg’s electricity grid on the edge: City Power has warned about the potential overload of transformers and other distribution equipment as a cold front hits Johannesburg. It said the cold weather is forcing residents to use more electricity and is putting strain on the grid. [EWN] 

The man making R272,000 a day: MTN CEO Ralph Mupita received a total remuneration of R99.313 million for the 2025 financial year. This was driven largely by higher short-term incentives and the vesting of long-term incentives following the company’s return to profit. It equates to earning R272,000 per day. [BusinessTech] 

Zuckerberg goes scorched earth: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his vision for the future of AI, arguing that it should be distributed as widely as possible and be available as cheaply as possible. Meta has open-sourced a number of its AI models in recent weeks as part of this new vision. [Yahoo Finance] 

Gold regains its shine: Gold prices rose for the third straight session on Monday to their highest level in two months as investors look to the US inflation data coming out this week. The rise has also been partly driven by the fear of missing out as investors think prices could rise above $5,000 per ounce. [Reuters]