Things have been happening these past few weeks. In Cape town we have seen heavy rains, wind and snow. An assassin’s bullet grazed Donald Trump’s ear and investors have been selling big tech companies in the USA and buying smaller undervalued companies. To top all of this, Microsoft, banks and airports experienced a massive outage last Friday. The South African Reserve Bank has kept interest rates on hold and it is likely that they will only cut when the USA does so. With all of these things happening around us, it does seem that the core has remained the same. Equities as well as bonds are performing well; the rand is still struggling to get below R18/$; and both gold and Bitcoin have moved up a bit.
People are getting on with their lives and it is good to be in the moment, but as investors we have to always plan for the future. It is very likely that Donald Trump will be the next president of the USA. This will have an impact on all our investments and we can already see people rotating their positions in anticipation. “Make America Great Again” is still his campaign slogan so we don’t have to wonder who will benefit from his presidency. What we do have to wonder about, is whether the markets will react the same as last time, or whether the changes that have taken place since his last term will result in a different, more negative outcome.