Trump’s 1,000 stock trades in one month, and data centres under fire in South Africa

The rand strengthened by more than 1% against the US dollar in the week from 17 to 23 August, now trading at one of its lowest levels in months.

The local currency even briefly broke through the R16 mark against the greenback to trade at R15.99/USD.

The JSE All Share Index also ended the trading week in the green, picking up 1.81%. The local bourse benefited from stronger resource stocks.

Harmony Gold, Valterra Platinum, Impala Platinum, Sibanye-Stillwater, and AngloGold Ashanti all benefited from a rebound in precious metals.

The JSE was better off than Wall Street, as the S&P 500 Index fell 1.43%, despite a modest 0.43% rebound on Friday. The Dow was down 0.85%, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 2.45%.

Asian markets also experienced a mixed-to-lower performance over the past week, pressured by global bond market stress and a weak handover from Wall Street’s tech-heavy sell-off.

While a late-week rebound helped South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, major benchmarks like Japan’s Nikke logged a 4% loss.

In the week ahead, South African investors can look forward to a host of local results releases.

This includes notices from MTN, Advtech, Italtile, Grindrod, Gold Fields, Bidcorp, South32, Harmony Gold, Truworths, and Northam Platinum.

On Wall Street, earnings season is slowly coming to an end, with 462 of the S&P 500 companies already having reported results.

To date, 87% have beaten earnings expectations, while 69% have reported revenue ahead of consensus estimates.

However, some big-hitters are set to report results this coming week, including Nvidia, Salesforce, and CrowdStrike.

Important finance and investing news

Alibaba wants to place $10.2 billion worth of new shares in Hong Kong: The China-based company said this deal would mark the largest-ever primary follow-on offering by a Hong-Kong listed econompany and the biggest Regulation S equity offering on record. [Reuters]

United States and Canada locked in a trade war: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country will impose “dollar for dollar” tariffs on some US goods to retaliate against the United States’ 50% levies on Canadian products. This comes after trade talks between the two countries collapsed. [Reuters]

Trump made 1,000 stock trades in June: US President Donald Trump’s latest government disclosure of his investment accounts revealed that he made over 1,000 transactions in June. The White House said the President had no role in the trading, which was handled by an independent manager. [Wall Street Journal]

Anthropic could raise $100 billion in Wall Street debut: This offering could value the five-year-old AI start-up at $2 trillion, making it the largest-ever public offering, exceeding Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Claude-owner was valued at $900 billion in a private fund-raising round earlier this year. [New York Times]

Data centres under fire in South Africa: The South African Human Rights Commission and environmental groups are looking into the rapid expansion of data centres in South Africa. The groups warn that this expansion could put pressure on the country’s already scarce water, electricity, and land resources. [BusinessDay]