JSEDirect with Simon Brown

🌍 Worldwide Markets Episode 650 – 1 October 2025 Hosted by Simon Brown Powered by Standard Bank Global Markets & the Shyft Global Money App 💳🌐 🔑 Key Topics This Week 📈 Purple Group* & EasyEquities Purple Group share price up ~150% this year 🚀 Results driven by non-revenue income (inactivity fees & loyalty program) Strong client acquisition via Capitec & Discovery Bank partnerships 🏦 Trading...

🌍 Worldwide Markets Ep. 649 – Building a Second Brain 🧠✨ Recorded on 24 September 2025 (from the beach!) – Hosted by Simon Brown This week, Simon takes a break from market talk 📉📈 to explore something equally powerful: how to manage the flood of data and information we face every day . Instead of focusing on stocks, currencies, or central banks, he dives into the idea of creating a "second br...

🌍 World Wide Markets Ep. 648 – Cash-Rich Companies, Fed Cuts & China's Housing Woes Host: Simon Brown Date: 17 September 2025 📉 China's Housing Market New house prices fell 2.5% YoY – still negative since May 2022. Bottomed in October 2023 (-5.9%) and now trending upward. Reflects weak Chinese consumer confidence, similar to South Africa 🇨🇳🇿🇦. Evergrande's collapse still casts a shadow. Chinese...

🌍 Worldwide Markets – Episode 647 (9 Sept 2024) This week on *Worldwide Markets*, Simon Brown dives into global markets, tech giants, crypto shifts, commodities, and currencies. Recorded a day early before heading to Leaderex, here's what's moving markets right now. Powered by Standard Bank and Shyft . 💳🌐 📊 US Jobs & Rate Cuts US jobs report was a mixed bag → +22k jobs, but mostly in healthcar...

🌠Worldwide Markets Ep. 646 – 3 September 2025 ðŸŽ™ï¸ Hosted by Simon Brown Powered by Standard Bank & Shyft , the global money app ðŸ'³ðŸŒ ðŸ"ˆ Key Topics This Week 🌠Emerging Markets: 20 Years of Poor Returns EM ETFs have underperformed vs. the US and gold 20-year CAGR: ðŸ"Š NASDAQ: +1,400% (14.5% CAGR) 🟡 Gold: +700% (10.9% CAGR) 🇺🇸 S&P 500: +440% (8.7% CAGR) 🌠Emerging Markets: +...

📌 Key Themes This Week 📊 Naspers share split – AGM approves a 5-for-1 split to make shares more affordable for smaller investors. 💬 Jackson Hole update – Jerome Powell's last appearance as Fed Chair, shifting focus from inflation to jobs. Markets pricing in September & December rate cuts with high certainty. 💸 Trump & the Fed – Trump fires Fed Governor Lisa Cook ❌ and pushes to pack the Fed w...

🌍 Worldwide Markets Ep. 644 – 20 August 2024 🎙️ Hosted by Simon Brown This week's episode dives into Buffett's latest moves, Google's iconic IPO, and big results from Standard Bank, MTN, and Sasol. Here's what you need to know: 📈 Buffett Buys UnitedHealth – Should You Follow? Berkshire Hathaway picked up UnitedHealth (UNH) . Stock has fallen from $600 → $308 due to federal investigations ⚖️. On...

🇺🇸 US Inflation – Numbers come in softer than expected 📊, fuelling hopes for a **September rate cut** from the Fed 🏦. ⛽ Sasol trading update – PE under 3 😮, H2 profits looking stronger, and the market loving it (+9.7% 🚀). 💰 Share buybacks – Why US companies love them, the tax angle, and Apple's massive \$100bn spree 🍏. Apple out standing shares 🪙 Gold & the Resi10 index – Resource stocks r...

🎙️  Worldwide Markets – Episode 642 📅 Recorded: Tuesday, 5 August 💼 Host: Simon Brown 🌍 Powered by Standard Bank Shyft – The global money app for travel, shopping, payments & investing. 🔮 Market Highlights 📈 Purple Group* rocks 🚀 Share price has more than doubled since April lows. 🧾 PE at 56, but strong growth potential and product expansion. 💼 Simon holds the stock — bought low, holding f...

🔺  Tariffs Incoming 🇿🇦 SA faces 30% US tariffs starting Friday. 🚗 Auto industry, 🍊 citrus, 🚚 logistics & 🧪 fertilizer sectors (like Omnia, Kaap Agri, Impact) to feel the heat — but no fatal blows expected. 📉 MPC Policy Misfire? 💰 SA inflation at 3%, but rates still stuck at 10.75%. 📉 Is the MPC behind the curve? Simon says: Yes . 📉 Calls for a rate cut of at least 0.5% to 1%. SA CPI and P...

🌍 This week on Worldwide Markets , Simon dives into a packed show covering inflation, earnings, property deals, and opportunities in local stocks. Powered by Standard Bank Global Markets and Shyft — your gateway to global investing. 🌐💸 📉 Inflation Target Cut – A Bad Idea? • SA may shift to a 3% inflation target 📊 • Risks of higher interest rates 😬 • Real rates already sky-high 🚀 💵 Weaker U...

🎙 This Week in Markets: US inflation ticks higher 📈, putting pressure on rate cuts. Powell's in no rush. Local rates also due end-July. 🏘 China Housing Trouble: 3 years of negative home price growth in China 🇨🇳. Citizens frustrated as property values slide. Evergrande and other ghosts still haunt. Chinese Home prices Year-on-Year | June 2025 🚀 Elon Watch: Musk injects $2B into XAI 🤖. Deck chair...

Simon's on holiday in sunny Durban 🌞 but couldn't resist diving into what might be  Trump's grand economic plan . On the surface, it's tariffs, spending cuts and tax breaks—but is there real strategy underneath the chaos? 🔹 Trump's Big Idea : Use tariffs to raise revenue and onshore manufacturing 🏭 🔹 Debt Drama : US debt now > $30 trillion 😬 🔹 Tariffs Everywhere : South Africa slapped with 3...

The Year So Far 📈 Market returns in 2025 tell a story of extreme volatility rather than predictable trends. The US 10-year yield spiked above 4.5%, shaking confidence before Trump walked back tariffs. Trump's Second Term 🏛️ Tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China, and NATO tensions triggered waves of uncertainty. A 90-day tariff pause ends soon—more volatility ahead. Currency Moves 💱 The rand hit R19.9...

💸 Know Your Fees: Effective Annual Cost (EAC) Not all fees are created equal — EAC is the real number to watch. Applies to retirement products, LISPs, and unit trusts — not to stockbrokers. 📊 Understand the difference: TER (Total Expense Ratio) TIC (Total Investment Cost) EAC (includes platform + advisor + product fees) 🍏🍏 Apples-to-apples: Compare funds using EAC. 🎯 Target an EAC between 1.1...

This week, Simon Brown unpacks the numbers behind a recovering South African consumer, an attractive new renewable energy listing, and the latest moves in platinum group metals (PGMs). Plus, CrowdStrike's results, Omnia's cash pile (and SARS headache), and what falling bond yields mean for SA. In this episode: 📈 Retail recovery? Results from Mr Price* and TFG* show H2 improvement — are SA consume...

Simon has been doing a key note address over the last week and in this weeks podcast he takes a slightly different tack to what he usually presents. This time he is delivery his key note. He looks back over almost forty years of market crises that he's invested through. He shares the lessons he learnt, what caused the crisis and what the response was. This includes; 1987, EM Tigers of 1998, the Do...

SARB inflation target 🎯 Inflation remains well below target at 2.8%, raising expectations of a rate cut at Thursday's MPC meeting. New long-term target could shift to 3%. ⏳ Rate cut coming? Market's betting on 25bps; Simon wants 50bps. 💡 Lower target = anchored expectations = tamer wage negotiations. Peloton (PTON) 🚴‍♂️ The pandemic darling may be turning a corner with solid free cash flow ret...

🎯  Tariff Talks: Where Are We Now? Simon Brown recaps the evolution of Trump-era tariffs, with recent developments around: US-China deal: effective 54% tariff on Chinese goods, 10% on US goods UK, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam likely settling around 10% Expectations for other regions like EU, Saudi Arabia, South Africa Conclusion: tariff escalation seems contained, reducing recession risks Key Insight...

🧓 Warren Buffett Steps Down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Buffett officially steps aside as CEO at age 94, replaced by Greg Abel. Still remains Chairman Berkshire A shares up ~44,000% since the 80s No dividends ever paid, only share buybacks His legacy: simplicity, repeatable process, and long-term vision Emphasis on reading years of balance sheets and loving cash flow Fun fact: 96% of his net wor...

  🎙  Episode Summary: This week, Simon unpacks Alphabet's surprisingly cheap valuation, troubling US economic data, South African CPI figures, Trump's trade mess, and the implications of Aspen's customer fallout. Plus, he previews the Berkshire AGM and upcoming JustOneLap events. 📉 US Economic Data Shock Q1 GDP: Expected +0.2%, came in at –0.3% 😬 Imports surged 40%, skewing GDP down Retail inven...

Gold Pullback in Focus Gold surged to $3,500 before a sharp pullback to $3,321. Simon breaks down what caused the spike — including comments from Trump about Powell and rate cuts. Weekly chart shows potential kangaroo tail reversal — possible zone to watch: $2,800–$3,000. Gold | Weekly | 23 April 2025 Trump, Powell & IMF Forecast Downgrades Trump critiques Powell and Fed policy while possibly sett...

🌍 Global Markets Rundown Goldman Sachs suggests gold could plausibly hit $4,500/oz by year-end. Gold is currently around $3,200/oz, but volatility and uncertainty are driving prices higher. Gold miners are benefiting from the price surge, with big leverage showing up in earnings. Example: Pan African Resources made $900/oz at $2,250; could make $2,900 at $3,250. Big upside still possible if gold...