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BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Listen to the latest BusinessLIVE articles from the news desk of Business Day, Financial Mail and the Business Times.

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Daily English South Africa Business News · News
12,931 Episodes
520 – 540

Gold dips as investors cash in ahead of Fed address

Bengaluru — Gold prices fell on Thursday, following a sharp rise in the previous session, as investors squared positions ahead of a much-awaited speech from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Spot gold was down 0.6% to $1,941.43/oz by 3.15am GMT, after rising 1.3% on Wednesday on expectations of more…
27 Aug 2020 2AM 2 min

Oil prices hover as Hurricane Laura shuts production

Melbourne — Oil prices were in a holding pattern on Thursday as a massive storm in the Gulf of Mexico raced towards the heart of the US oil industry, forcing oil rigs and refineries to shut, with little effect expected on supply as oil stockpiles remain high. US West Texas…
27 Aug 2020 1AM 2 min

Asian markets ease as focus falls on Fed’s stimulus policy

Sydney — Asian shares touched two-year peaks on Thursday in the wake of Wall Street’s record run as cheap cash drove up big-cap tech darlings, though Sino-US tensions caused caution to creep in as the session progressed. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan turned flat after earlier reaching…
27 Aug 2020 1AM 3 min

JSE faces mixed Asian markets on Thursday

The JSE faces mixed Asian markets on Thursday morning, with focus on the Jackson Hole economic symposium in the US later. US Federal Reserve officials are expected to outline their expectations of economic recovery in the world’s largest economy, and how they will support it. Financial markets are expecting chair…
27 Aug 2020 1AM 1 min

EDITORIAL: Banks brace for bad debts

SA’s bankers are buckling up for a flood of bad debts. This week, Absa set aside an immense R7.3bn to cover a tide of expected loan defaults from consumers and companies unable to pay their debts. This provision, which took Absa’s total bad debt charge to R14.7bn for the six…
27 Aug 2020 12AM 1 min

S&P and Nasdaq reach record closing highs

New York — US stocks surged on Wednesday, pushing the S&P 500 to its fourth straight record closing high, as investors stayed focused on large-cap stocks that have outperformed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The Nasdaq also set an all-time closing high, its 39th year-to-date, compared with a…
26 Aug 2020 5PM 3 min

EU trade commissioner Hogan resigns over Covid-19 rules breach

Brussels — EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan stepped down on Wednesday after growing criticism that he broke virus regulations in his Ireland. “This evening I have tendered my resignation,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “It was becoming increasingly clear that the controversy concerning my recent visit to Ireland…
26 Aug 2020 4PM 4 min

UIF system rejects double claims by retrenched workers

Workers who received payments under the temporary employer/employee (Ters) benefit have not been able to get unemployment insurance fund benefits when they were subsequently retrenched. And the problem is likely to become more acute as the department of employment & labour expects that there will be mass retrenchments in future…
26 Aug 2020 3PM 1 min

EDITORIAL: Telkom option has own pitfalls

It looks like there’s no stopping public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan’s determination to restart SAA. We have written before criticising a plan that would suck up money from a Treasury that has put fiscal consolidation at the heart of its budgeting as SA grapples with a ballooning budget shortfall and…
26 Aug 2020 3PM 4 min

Ndabeni-Abrahams halts SABC job cuts over lack of staff consultation

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says she has told the SABC to stop its planned retrenchments, arguing that the ailing public broadcaster had not followed due process. Echoing the concerns raised by trade unions, Ndabeni-Abrahams said in responses to questions in parliament that after meeting all stakeholders, including the leadership of…
26 Aug 2020 2PM 2 min

Government releases names of companies that won Covid-19 tenders

Under pressure from opposition parties and the public, the government on Wednesday released the names of all the companies that won Covid-19 tenders. The ANC-led government has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks after allegations of corruption in the awarding of Covid-19 tenders surfaced countrywide, with provincial governments giving…
26 Aug 2020 2PM 2 min

UN-backed climate fund faces allegations of ‘systemic’ abuse

London — Seventeen employees of the world's largest global climate fund, based in South Korea, have complained of sexism, racism and harassment within the troubled UN-led project. The current and former Green Climate Fund (GCF) workers said they also suffered or witnessed instances of inappropriate relationships and abuse of power…
26 Aug 2020 1PM 2 min

Masondo warns of crisis over slow pace of economic reforms

Deputy finance minister David Masondo says the slow pace of implementing structural economic reforms is worrying and warned that SA faces a “credibility crisis” if it does not accelerate. Critics have highlighted the long time it is taking government to implement the much talked about economic reforms, which are also…
26 Aug 2020 1PM 2 min

World Economic Forum delayed in 2021 due to the pandemic

Zurich — The World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that the coronavirus has forced it to delay its high-profile gathering of global business and financial leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos until early in the 2021 northern hemisphere summer. Normally held each January in the ski town, the gathering…
26 Aug 2020 12PM 2 min

MICHAEL MARCHANT: Steinhoff: in the dark, still

Nearly three years after Steinhoff’s finances were exposed as a sham and the company lost nearly all its value overnight, it is offering shareholders and former partners a settlement agreement. Facing legal claims for over R130bn, Steinhoff’s management is proposing a R16bn settlement, payable in a mixture of cash and…
26 Aug 2020 12PM 4 min

US-China tensions rise as missiles fired and US trade restrictions announced

New York — US-China tensions over the South China Sea escalated on Wednesday as Beijing fired two missiles into the disputed waterway and the Trump administration added 24 Chinese companies to a list of entities facing trade restrictions for helping build outposts in the region. Amid ongoing military drills, China…
26 Aug 2020 12PM 2 min

TRACEY DAVIES: PwC waves magic wage gap wand

In one fell swoop, PwC appears to have eliminated SA’s socially destabilising wage gap. The auditing firm’s recently released "Practices and Remuneration Trends Report — Executive Directors" analyses publicly available information on executive remuneration at JSE-listed companies for the period May 1 2019 to February 29 2020. PwC concludes that…
26 Aug 2020 12PM 5 min
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