In 1972 economist Yale Hirsch devised the January Barometer with his predictive tool stating that “as the S&P500 goes in January so goes the year”. The barometer has been correct 84% of the time since, and with the S&P500 up 3.2% as we go into the month’s final session things are looking positive for the rest of 2025!!!

In 1972 economist Yale Hirsch devised the January Barometer with his predictive tool stating that “as the S&P500 goes in January so goes the year”. The barometer has been correct 84% of the time since, and with the S&P500 up 3.2% as we go into the month’s final session things are looking positive for the rest of 2025!!!

What a week it has been, and its only Tuesday morning!!! We always knew that life under the Trump administration was going to be an interesting time but past 48 hours have been exceptionally eventful.

After being minted for 230 years it looks like the US penny has come to the end of the road. Donald Trump has ordered the end of penny production, and when considering that the US Mint made 3.2 billion pennies last year alone at a cost of 3.7c for the 1c coin then calling time on it makes a lot of sense.

Johann Rupert has had a pretty good time of it lately with his family’s personal wealth surging by R52bn in just three months!!! Most of this growth comes from his position in Richemont, and with luxury stocks advancing hopefully that is a sign of resilient a global economy.

Fairy tales are great for the imagination, like in Pinocchio for example where Geppetto is swallowed by a whale only to be spat out later. Well, that scene became a reality for Adrian Simancas when a humpback whale swallowed him and his kayak off the coast of Chile before spitting him back out, and his dad caught the whole thing on camera!!! If you haven’t seen the footage it’s worth doing a quick search.

It just goes to show that the best time to have an unprecedented local scandal, like postponing the annual Budget Speech for the first time in our democratic history for example, is to do it when the Dollar is on the back foot!!!

The market was holping that we would get news of a last minute deal to avert the looming tariff threats but it looks like that deal is not going to come, and while the currency market hasn’t reacted too severely just yet the same cannot be said for equities.