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In our continued efforts to give our readers a broad number of views, opinions and information, we continue to provide PSG's daily market updates and add our own daily rant at the end.
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Short summary of PSG's market commentary for 3 December 2018
South Africa
The JSE took a knock on Friday, despite Naspers’s results, due to global risk-off trade ahead of the G20 Summit and the highly anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the close of business, the All Share was down 2.08% and the Top 40 2.29%.
United States
Hope blossomed for US markets on Friday, regardless of the global risk-off trade, due to the US Federal Reserve Bank’s dovish interest rate plans and a possible conclusion to the US-China trade war. US markets closed the week flat, with the S&P 500 up only 0.81%.
Europe
European markets faced a difficult Friday after poor Chinese corporate data were released, and ahead of the Trump-Jinping talks at the weekend’s G20 summit. The STOXX 600 ended the week in the red by dropping a marginal 0.25%.
Hong Kong
Most Asian markets ended the week on a positive note in light of announcements that the oil-producing countries planned to reduce oil production and the Fed’s dovish approach to interest rates. At the close of business on Friday, the Shanghai was up 0.81%.
Japan
Although Japanese markets enjoyed support from defensive and petroleum shares on Friday, global investor anxieties ahead of the G20 meeting took a toll. The Nikkei ended the week on 0.40% in the green.
Rand
Although the rand presented anxiously on Friday by losing ground ahead of the Group 20 meeting in Argentina, it maintained its gains of the week. By 20h30 on Sunday, the rand traded R13.85 to the dollar.
Precious metals
Gold held steady on Friday as the dollar faced difficulties after Trump announced that although he believes a trade agreement between the US and China is close, he might not want one. At 20h30 on Sunday, gold traded at $1 222.24 an ounce.
Oil
Oil ended its worst trading month for 2018 and the past ten years on Friday by falling even further due to oversupplied oil inventories. At 20h30 on Sunday, Brent crude cost $59.16 per barrel.
The JSE took a knock on Friday, despite Naspers’s results, due to global risk-off trade ahead of the G20 Summit and the highly anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the close of business, the All Share was down 2.08% and the Top 40 2.29%.
United States
Hope blossomed for US markets on Friday, regardless of the global risk-off trade, due to the US Federal Reserve Bank’s dovish interest rate plans and a possible conclusion to the US-China trade war. US markets closed the week flat, with the S&P 500 up only 0.81%.
Europe
European markets faced a difficult Friday after poor Chinese corporate data were released, and ahead of the Trump-Jinping talks at the weekend’s G20 summit. The STOXX 600 ended the week in the red by dropping a marginal 0.25%.
Hong Kong
Most Asian markets ended the week on a positive note in light of announcements that the oil-producing countries planned to reduce oil production and the Fed’s dovish approach to interest rates. At the close of business on Friday, the Shanghai was up 0.81%.
Japan
Although Japanese markets enjoyed support from defensive and petroleum shares on Friday, global investor anxieties ahead of the G20 meeting took a toll. The Nikkei ended the week on 0.40% in the green.
Rand
Although the rand presented anxiously on Friday by losing ground ahead of the Group 20 meeting in Argentina, it maintained its gains of the week. By 20h30 on Sunday, the rand traded R13.85 to the dollar.
Precious metals
Gold held steady on Friday as the dollar faced difficulties after Trump announced that although he believes a trade agreement between the US and China is close, he might not want one. At 20h30 on Sunday, gold traded at $1 222.24 an ounce.
Oil
Oil ended its worst trading month for 2018 and the past ten years on Friday by falling even further due to oversupplied oil inventories. At 20h30 on Sunday, Brent crude cost $59.16 per barrel.
Our daily rant..
A recent article published by Reuters and available on Sharenet's site discussed the issue of revised GDP numbers in India, which shows that the economy grew at a slower pace under the previous main political party in India. A move many believe is a political one in which the current ruling party is trying to show that the economy performed better under the current ruling party than the previous ruling party, and all this before new general elections are held in India in 2019. Do we as South African's have to be worried about GDP numbers being inflated before the elections next year as the ANC tries to stem losses at the polls by reporting inflated economic growth numbers? We doubt it very much. Up to this point the numbers published by Stats SA seems free from political influence and lets hope it stays that way. Below an extract from the article regarding India's current statistics turmoil. Original article can be found here.
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - It may be the world's sixth largest, but most other things about India's economy are up for debate.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is under fire for the release of new historical GDP figures that significantly downgraded growth during the years the opposition Congress party was in power, replacing old government estimates and those prepared by an independent committee. The figures, released by the government's Central Statistics Office (CSO), showed growth in the 10 years of Congress rule to 2014 averaged 6.7 percent, below an average of 7.4 percent under the current government. A previous government estimate had growth under Congress at 7.8 percent.
P. Chidambaram, a former Congress finance minister, called the release "a joke". In response India's current finance minister, the BJP's Arun Jaitley, said the CSO was a credible organisation.The fallout comes at a critical time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's economy grew a weaker-than-expected 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter, from a more than two-year high of 8.2 percent in the previous quarter, government data showed on Friday. Modi faces a general election next year, when the performance of the economy under his pro-business administration compared with the Congress era is likely to dominate campaigning. The spat has also alarmed India's top statisticians, who have long faced the difficult task of estimating growth and unemployment in an economy with hundreds of millions of informal workers, and dominated its financial press and political cartoons in recent days. "The entire episode threatens to bring disrepute to India's statistical services," said an editorial in Mint, one of the country's leading business newspapers, on Friday.
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - It may be the world's sixth largest, but most other things about India's economy are up for debate.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is under fire for the release of new historical GDP figures that significantly downgraded growth during the years the opposition Congress party was in power, replacing old government estimates and those prepared by an independent committee. The figures, released by the government's Central Statistics Office (CSO), showed growth in the 10 years of Congress rule to 2014 averaged 6.7 percent, below an average of 7.4 percent under the current government. A previous government estimate had growth under Congress at 7.8 percent.
P. Chidambaram, a former Congress finance minister, called the release "a joke". In response India's current finance minister, the BJP's Arun Jaitley, said the CSO was a credible organisation.The fallout comes at a critical time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's economy grew a weaker-than-expected 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter, from a more than two-year high of 8.2 percent in the previous quarter, government data showed on Friday. Modi faces a general election next year, when the performance of the economy under his pro-business administration compared with the Congress era is likely to dominate campaigning. The spat has also alarmed India's top statisticians, who have long faced the difficult task of estimating growth and unemployment in an economy with hundreds of millions of informal workers, and dominated its financial press and political cartoons in recent days. "The entire episode threatens to bring disrepute to India's statistical services," said an editorial in Mint, one of the country's leading business newspapers, on Friday.