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Johannesburg - Most markets around the globe had a much better week than one would have expected, with the very real risk of the US governement shutting down for business within a few weeks.
Certain non-essential public services, such as public parks, museums and the like, have been closed because there is simply no money in the institutions' bank accounts to pay salaries or buy toilet paper.
Surprisingly, international share and bond markets shrugged off the US' problems.
* Firstly, because everybody knows about it;
* Secondly, because people believe that politicians will agree soon enough and vote to enable the US governement to go and borrow more money to keep things going.
Obviously, this is not the long term solution, especially if one considers that investors are not queuing around the block to buy US bonds.
The only known buyer at this stage is the US government itself - to pump cash into their economy to keep the vulnerable economy going.
In fact, international markets benefitted from these corcerns as investment capital flowed to other countries looking for better returns and less risk.
The SA bond and equity markets benefitted from inflows last week as foreigners were net buyers of both bonds and equities.
This balanced the bad news of an unexpected increase in our current account deficit. Overall, the rand improved somewhat from the previous week's weaker levels.
The week ahead
Except for lots of news about the US problems, we can expect an interesting week on the JSE.
Government surprised with an announcement late on Friday afternoon - after markets had closed - that they were taking steps to force cellular phone providers te reduce call charges when users phone across different networks. Shares in MTN, Telkom (parent company of 8ta) and Vodacom are bound to react on Monday.
Financials shares will also attract attention as investors will keep a close eye on developments with regards to unsecured lending by banks.
StatsSA will announce manufacturing and mining production figures on Thursday, which might put a damper on the market.
Expectations are that these figures will show the impact of increasing labour unrest and the effect of higher wages and higher energy costs.
From next week, companies with financial years ending in February and March will start to anounce interim results, which will give investors more opportunities to have fun.
Certain non-essential public services, such as public parks, museums and the like, have been closed because there is simply no money in the institutions' bank accounts to pay salaries or buy toilet paper.
Surprisingly, international share and bond markets shrugged off the US' problems.
* Firstly, because everybody knows about it;
* Secondly, because people believe that politicians will agree soon enough and vote to enable the US governement to go and borrow more money to keep things going.
Obviously, this is not the long term solution, especially if one considers that investors are not queuing around the block to buy US bonds.
The only known buyer at this stage is the US government itself - to pump cash into their economy to keep the vulnerable economy going.
In fact, international markets benefitted from these corcerns as investment capital flowed to other countries looking for better returns and less risk.
The SA bond and equity markets benefitted from inflows last week as foreigners were net buyers of both bonds and equities.
This balanced the bad news of an unexpected increase in our current account deficit. Overall, the rand improved somewhat from the previous week's weaker levels.
The week ahead
Except for lots of news about the US problems, we can expect an interesting week on the JSE.
Government surprised with an announcement late on Friday afternoon - after markets had closed - that they were taking steps to force cellular phone providers te reduce call charges when users phone across different networks. Shares in MTN, Telkom (parent company of 8ta) and Vodacom are bound to react on Monday.
Financials shares will also attract attention as investors will keep a close eye on developments with regards to unsecured lending by banks.
StatsSA will announce manufacturing and mining production figures on Thursday, which might put a damper on the market.
Expectations are that these figures will show the impact of increasing labour unrest and the effect of higher wages and higher energy costs.
From next week, companies with financial years ending in February and March will start to anounce interim results, which will give investors more opportunities to have fun.
