Markets Overnight:
Markets were mostly positive yesterday on solid US jobless data as well as Ben Bernanke saying that the Fed will do everything they can to prevent Europe’s financial crises from hurting the US economy. In Europe there is still some nervousness with Greece struggling to reach an agreement on a debt swap deal with its creditors while finance ministers from Germany, Finland, Luxemborg and Netherlands (the remaining AAA rated countries in the Eurozone) will meet in Berlin today.
South Africa:
At home our markets rallied for another day bring the JSE All Share index to yet another all-time high. Here is a shocking stat for all you risk averse investors: The All Share rose by a whopping 7% in January alone… that is more than what you will get in the money market for a full year!
Naamsa also reported that new car sales were the best in five years, improving by 7.5% in the last year.
Company News:
MTN (MTN) shares are expected to take a beating today on news that it faces a potential lawsuit from Turkey’s Turkcell over its licence in Iran, claiming MTN asked South Africa to back Iran’s nuclear development in return for a cellular licence in the country.
Anglo American (AGL) rallied yesterday on speculation that they might be a takeover target, and Implats (IMP) announced that it had dismissed a further 13 000 mineworkers at its Rustenburg mine, bringing the total amount of workers that have been dismissed at around 17 200.
Today:
Important data to look out for today include employment data, non-manufacturing PMI and factory orders out of the US, Europe’s retail sales for December as well as services PMI data out of Europe and the UK. Locally the SACCI business confidence for January will be released and Investec (INL) wil report.
Today we expect the market to pull back yet after another strong week. Also, US futures and Asian markets show weakness, adding to the probability of a negative end to the week.
