Budget 2023

• Pieter Janse van Rensburg ~ AJM Tax
• Tony Leon ~ former leader of the opposition & ambassador
• Lesego Majatladi ~ Stay Latatude
• Simon Brown

Great insights into the budget, who should be our finance minister and even the Coronation* (JSE code: CML) Con Court appeal against the SARS judgement.

Simon Shares

• Sasol (JSE code: SOL) update was all about troubles with power, ports and rail. In other words SA infrastreucture.
• Pick n Pay (JSE code: PIK), they spending R60million a month on diesel.
• US unemployment is the lowest since 1969 at 3.4%.
• Grey listing for South Africa. The Financial Action Task Force will announce their decision at their 24 February meeting.

A paradigm shift is happening

AI has suddenly landed and it's going to be wild.

I rate it with some other major technological paradigm shifts;

• The personal computer in 1974
• The internet in 1990 (yes we had dial up bulletin boards before then, but that wasn't internet).
• Smart phones with the iPhone in 2007

All were horrid when they launched. But now they drive humanity.

Facebook getting their ads working AI after Apple locked them out.

Search is changing and will Google be the new winner.

We use Dali-E for images on JOL

Chat GPT is great, but it is not accurate. That is actually a design feature, but this is only version 3.5 and already lots of people are using it for real world practical examples.

How is it going to change investing and trading? I don't know but I know many, myself included, are trying things to see what works and what actually adds value.

Quick update, I buying Coronation (JSE code:CML) at ±3750c.

View my portfolio ==>> www.SimonBrown.co.za

Simon Shares

• MPC Thursday (26 January) raised 0.25% and FOMC Wednesday (1 February) expected is 0.25%.
• Capco (JSE code: CCO) good trading update and dividend.
• Renergen* (JSE code: REN) proposing US ADRs with Nasdaq listing in time to raise last capital required for phase 2.

Stocks losing money from load shedding

All listed companies are mentioning load shedding in their updates.

Shoprite* (JSE code: SHP);

"The Group's additional spend on diesel to operate generators across our Supermarkets RSA store base in order to trade uninterrupted during load shedding stages five and six amounted to R560 million for the period."

For the six months ending 2 January 2022 operating profit was R5,113billion. So load shedding costing the group ±10% of operating profit?

Astral (JSE code: ARL) selling chicken R2/kg below cost of production.

"A large portion of the capital expenditure commitments amounting to R737 million, outlined during the F2022 results presentation, has been placed on hold given the current adverse market conditions. The Group has however committed funds towards backup electricity generation solutions to reduce the adverse impact of load shedding."