The Markets Daily

Today is likely to be a lot like the rest of the week – quiet on the data front (although the release of the US’s weekly initial jobless and continuing claims will be interesting), and heavily focused on politics, geopolitical relations and responses to surges in covid-19 infections.

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“Common” sense is seldom that – and why Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s preference to be rule light in favour of relying on British common sense is proving unsuccessful in containing the renewed spread of covid-19 across the UK.

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While I drifted around the Kruger National Park last week (and the week before), with gloriously intermittent cell phone signal, there were only a few push notifications on my phone I absorbed – the announcement of the President’s economic speech to parliament (last week Thursday), the request for MTBPS’s postponement, and vitally, that SA is facing a marmite shortage.

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Groundhog day: a situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way. That could be the definition of 2020 but is more applicable to the repeated themes circulating global markets.

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“In the aftermath of a fire, green shoots begin to emerge" President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered this line in his address to the joint sitting of parliament yesterday, and it really hit a button for me. As mentioned yesterday, I was in Kruger recently and the landscape was often striking as there were areas which had obviously experienced recent fires, and given some early rains, the green shoots of the grass were themselves beautiful and striking.

 

 

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I have just been away for the last two weeks, and what a glorious two weeks it was in one of South Africa’s many gems – the Kruger National Park. Fresh air, nature at its best and really intermittent cellular signal. What was most striking was that despite people in SA flocking to local holiday destinations, masks are being worn in public areas by most people and sanitiser is available at every entrance.

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There are no clever quips or analogies today. Time is of the essence. National Treasury has requested a one-week delay to the tabling of the MTBPS which is usually delivered at the half-way mark of the financial year.

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My three-year awoke in a panicked state at 4am this morning, concerned that we had run short of milk. “Milk”, I asked. “Yes”, he replied, “we need to go to the shops…now”. It took more than an hour to convince him that our dairy inventory was stocked, retail outlets have daylight trading hours and that it was still sufficiently dark enough for him to sleep. I, on the other hand, was wide awake which meant only one thing…coffee!

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We’re spellbound by the on-again off-again relationship between the Speaker of the House and the US President. A comprehensive plan is back on the table after Pelosi’s rejection of the Republicans’ piecemeal stimulus approach prompted an about-turn by the White House on the size of a deal...

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