We wake this morning to major news out of the Middle East, news that will dominate headlines for the next few days at least while also putting pressure on the Rand as a risk asset. Israel has attacked Iran and a retaliation is all but certain.

It’s probably quite difficult to wipe the smirk off Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s face at the moment, this as the arrival of China’s Deepseek AI model in January was touted as the death knell for Nvidia’s rampant growth forecasts. But yesterday Saudi Arabia committed to buying “several hundred thousand” of their most advanced GPU’s over the next five years which is a monster of an order.

It’s the end of an era as Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, confirmed that he will be stepping down as the head of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. Seriously big shoes for his successor, Greg Abel, to fill even in he has been groomed for the job since 2021 and has spent 25 years working at Berkshire.

Sometimes you just have to shake your head at the questionable thought processes of others. Japanese authorities recently had to rescue a Chinese student from Mount Fuji after he made an emergency call complaining of altitude sickness. Four days later they had to rescue him again as he went back up the mountain to find his phone.