Market Scorecard
US markets were mixed yesterday, with the S&P 500 clawing back some of its losses from Tuesday’s rout. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid further, but not by much. The S&P500 and Nasdaq are still up an impressive 17.8% and 14.3% year-to-date, even after the recent spell of market volatility.
In company news, Dollar Tree shares popped by 16% after the discount retailer said it would add $1 billion to its share-buyback program. The company also announced that it would start selling products at prices slightly over $1 in some of its stores. Maybe a name change to “Slightly Above A Dollar Tree” would be in order?
In summary, the JSE All-share was up 0.91%, the S&P 500 was up 0.16%, and the Nasdaq was down 0.24%
Our 10c Worth
One Thing, From Paul
It’s great to live in the 21st century; things used to be so much worse before. I suppose that people will say the same thing in years to come, but still, I’m happy that I’m alive now.
According to this thought-provoking essay, life for humans is better than ever because we have access to machines and systems, but also because of advances in intangible technology. The essay is by Nick Whitaker and it’s titled “Better Eats”. It’s about kitchen appliances and recipes.
Between 1900 and 1960, almost everything about kitchens changed, but since 1960, virtually nothing has. A series of key kitchen appliances were invented in the early 20th century, facilitated by the introduction of electricity and running water. These included the domestic refrigerator, the electric stove and oven, the dishwasher, the blender, the kettle, and, in 1947, the microwave.
Since then, not much has changed, but humans have become much better at preparing delicious meals. Recent progress has come in the form of things we cannot touch or feel, but nevertheless matter: new ideas, recipes, and techniques.
Online food videos are a cornerstone of this new knowledge base. Many cooking methods can’t easily be conveyed in writing and used to be transmitted person to person, in culinary apprenticeships or within families. But with video at scale, the best of them can be transmitted to anyone and preserved indefinitely. Thanks YouTube (owned by Google).
You can read the whole thing here: Works In Progress: Better Eats.
Byron’s Beats
Continuing my discussion of property investments from yesterday, I’m looking at developments in the South African market. We currently have an oversupply of office space and an undersupply of affordable housing in city centres. Of course, the solution is to convert the old offices into residential units.
That is exactly what Africrest are doing. This Fin24 piece, large Sandton office park turned into flats is about the R400 million conversion of an old PWC office in Sunninghill. The building, which could house 700 people, will be a great place for young professionals to live.
Although these conversions make sense, stumping up R400 million in these uncertain times takes big kahunas. Personally, I think it is a well-calculated risk and if the project is well executed, they will do incredibly well.
Young professionals living in city centres is great for restaurants and shops trading in those areas. It also means less time in traffic which improves productivity, morale and saves carbon. Basically, it makes Joburg a better place.
Michael’s Musings
The EU is in the process of pushing through legislation to standardise the charging port on consumer electronic devices. The new law will require manufacturers to have a USB-C charging port on all gadgets. This would include headphones, tablets and most importantly, cellphones. The law is intended to reduce the amount of electronic waste generated from the ongoing replacement of charging cables.
Since the law only targets devices that require cables for charging, many manufacturers, especially Apple, will speed up their move to wireless charging. I noticed that my Garmin watch is too thin for a USB-C port, so future watches will probably also use wireless chargers, and come with a higher price tag.
Many wireless chargers are interchangeable between cellphone manufacturers, and I assume that other electrical devices will use the same standard. Unsurprisingly, Apple announced a while back that they are working on their own superior wireless charging technology. Having multiple charging cables is slightly annoying but let’s hope that we don’t end up needing multiple wireless charging pads.
Another consequence of the proposal is that charging ports will probably never evolve further than USB-C. If new ports can’t be used, there is no incentive to spend money working on improvements. Regulations always create distortions. Let’s hope that the unintended consequences of this proposal aren’t too far-reaching.
Read more here – EU proposes mandatory USB-C on all devices.
Bright’s Banter
TikTok just announced that it has passed 1 billion monthly users, a massive milestone for a company that only launched in August 2018. TikTok took off in a major way during the first quarter of 2020 when it became the most downloaded app globally, with over 315 million downloads that quarter alone. Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, saw 301 million downloads in that period. According to SensorTower, TikTok/Douyin has been installed over 3.2 billion times in total.
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has more than doubled its revenues in 2020 to $34.3 billion. With operating losses of $2.1 billion it is now valued at $425 billion, according to Chinese technology news portal 36Kr. They also own news aggregator Toutiao, video editor CapCu, and enterprise services like Volcano Engine. The company also has businesses in education technology and video games.
The infographic below shows which country leads the pack in using the short-form video app.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Linkfest, Lap It Up
More and more car manufacturers are going fully-electric over the coming decade. When do we start buying combustion engine vehicles as collectables? (Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce to switch to all electric vehicles by 2030.)
Zweli Mkhize’s pal splurged Covid funds on Gucci swag, Smeg appliances, expensive home upgrades, and a month-long lavish holiday. This is how Tahera Mather blew at least R1 million of the money meant for vital Covid-19 communications – The Digital Vibes saga gets juicier by the day.
Signing Off
Asian markets have fluctuated this morning as investors reacted to some weak Chinese economic data. Hong Kong and Japan shares slipped while South Korea and mainland China edged higher.
US futures are higher in early trade, and we are hoping to pare some of the recent losses we’ve seen. The Rand is trading around R15.11 against the US Dollar, which is not that great. Hang in there, Friday is almost here!
Sent to you by Team Vestact.
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