Think Daily 20 January 2022

In Wednesday’s trading session in the local markets, the Top 40 closed the day up by 1.80%. The Resources 10 sector went up by 3.34%, the Financial 15 went down by 0.86%, the Industrial 25 went up by 1.41% and lastly the South African Listed Property index down by 0.91%. The rand traded at R15.31 against the United State Dollar, R20.87 against the Great British pound, and R17.37 against the Euro.



Figure 1: Richemont share price for 5 days

On the commodities front, the Brent Crude oil is trading at $88.26 a barrel and WTI Crude oil is traded at $85.77 a barrel. Gold Spot price is currently trading at $1840.64, Platinum Spot is now trading at $1031.50 and lastly, Palladium Spot price is at $1999.45. On the oil front, crude hit a fresh 7-year high, as traders mulled US president Joe Biden’s pledge to continue trying to lower prices and an industry report that pointed to a modest increase in US crude stockpiles. Palladium traded above an almost 2-year low of $1597/oz hit on December 15th amid expectations of a rebound in demand and easing of supply chain constraints from the second half of 2022. Last year, the cost of palladium declined almost 24% amid weak demand from the auto industry due to the global chip shortages. Gold prices steadied near 2-month highs to around $1,840 an ounce on Thursday, after jumping about 1.5% in the previous session, lifted by inflation concerns and increased safe-haven demand.
Across the globe, the S&P 500 closed the day up 0.30%, Dow Jones closed up 0.1% and the Nasdaq had a 0.51% up. The FTSE 100 closed up 0.35% the DAX was up 0.24% and CAC40 was down 0.55%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is down 0.27% and the Hang Seng is currently down 0.38%. In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 is up 1.11% and the Hang Seng is currently up 3.10%. High-growth tech names led the declines and remained under pressure from rising bond yields, with the benchmark 10-year yield hitting a high of 1.9% this week after starting the year at about 1.5%. On the corporate front, companies slated to report earnings on Thursday include Netflix, American Airlines, Union Pacific, Baker Hughes and Intuitive Surgical, among others. Investors also await data on jobless claims at 3:30 pm and existing home sales at 5 pm.