The Rand is blowing out on all the political shenanigans this week – cabinet reshuffle, rumours of CR17 and President Putin. A weaker Rand is good for Rand hedges, but bad for local shares. CPI inflation was very disappointing at 4.6% (headline inflation came in at 5.1%) – fuel inflation (5% of CPI basket) jumped 12.2% in Sept (vs 5.7% in Aug). And again, we’re seeing a local company look offshore for acquisition: FSR announced that they’re buying UK specialist lender Aldermore, Group 5 let a R1.6bn offer from Greenbay Properties lapes on Friday, and DSY finally got their banking license. Pick n Pay released H1’18 results and Richemont also released results – it looks like things have finally turned for the luxury goods sector. US earnings season has started with a bang as Netflix released results and the share was up over 4%… same story with Paypal, the share was also up >4% on the day of results. We’ve got SA Budget on Wednesday at 2pm – lots of questions about Nuclear.