DA finance chief under fire, and stock pickers doing worse than ever

The rand ended Sunday, 16 August, trading at R16.19, holding onto gains from last week.

The JSE ended Friday, 14 August, in the red, with the All Share Index and the Top 40 Index down slightly.

Wall Street also ended Friday on the back foot, easing off record territory. This retreat was led by the NASDAQ, which closed 0.3% weaker.

The S&P 500 shed 0.17%, while the Dow Jones eased 0.2%, as a soft July retail sales print and weaker United States consumer sentiment tempered the mood.

Citadel Global managing director Biance Botes said South Korea’s KOSPI is closed on Monday, 17 August, for the Liberation Day public holiday.

This comes after the Asian index closed 2.42% firmer on Friday, while Japan’s Nikkei is up 0.23% on Monday morning.

She said the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index, excluding Japan, is edging up, taking a steadier lead from Wall Street as US index futures tick higher after Friday’s soft close.

In commodities markets, Brent crude oil is trading at $88.97 per barrel, boosted by Israeli-Lebanese hostilities and the stalled reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Botes said these developments are keeping the market alive to the risk of supply disruption, with the International Energy Agency flagging the widest global deficit in five years.

Gold is holding firm at $4,396 per ounce, while the dollar languishes near its recent lows.

On the morning of Monday, 17 August, the rand was trading at R16.18 against the United States dollar, R18.73 against the euro, and R21.92 against the British pound.

Important finance and investing news

Stock pickers are doing worse than ever: New data show that only 13% of US large-cap funds have outperformed indexes over the past decade. Just 27% of actively managed U.S. large-cap equity funds outperformed their passive-fund benchmarks in the 12 months ended June 30, according to Morningstar data. [Wall Street Journal] 

DA finance chief under fire: The Reserve Bank is investigating Kastelo, a company founded by DA federal finance chairperson Mark Burke, for allegedly circumventing South Africa’s exchange controls. The company’s funds have been blocked since November 2025 after it took R4 billion out of the country. The company is currently chaired by Burke, and his brother, Nicholas, is its CEO. [BusinessDay] 

South Africa’s R500 million fund in the spotlight: The government’s R500 million small business fund is facing scrutiny over how applications are being verified and whether the money is reaching the businesses it was meant to support. Verification of applications has flagged businesses that could not be verified, and there are discrepancies over ownership. [EWN]

Chipmaker is now China’s most valuable company: Chinese chipmaker CXMT overtook Tencent on Thursday to become the country’s most valuable company, as memory makers surf a tidal wave of AI-fueled demand. [Semafor]

Anthropic projects 400% revenue rise: Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion to help justify its lofty IPO valuation target. The projection dwarfs the $47 billion revenue “run rate” that the company publicised as recently as May. [Reuters]