Clear market notes built around the JSE, the rand, and what matters locally.

2026-08-05 02:04 • The Motley Fool Positive Axe Cap view: Selective

Backblaze stock surged 26.94% after beating Q2 earnings expectations with 18% revenue growth to $42.7M and 34% B2 Cloud Storage revenue growth. The company raised full-year guidance and announced a $335M partnership with CoreWeave for AI storage solutions, demonstrating strong demand for scalable storage in AI workloads.

Axe note: Backblaze's earnings beat and AI partnership boost highlight the growing demand for cloud storage, with limited direct South African exposure but rand sentiment worth watching.

2026-08-05 00:30 • The Motley Fool Negative Axe Cap view: Selective

ASML stock fell 18% in July due to a broader AI sector sell-off following reports of Anthropic developing its own AI chip, and concerns about Chinese competition in ultraviolet lithography machines. Despite beating Q2 earnings expectations and raising full-year guidance, these headwinds outweighed positive results.

Axe note: ASML’s stock fell sharply despite strong earnings, spotlighting risks in the global tech chain that ripple to South Africa via the rand and select sectors.

2026-08-05 00:02 • The Motley Fool Positive Axe Cap view: Bullish

The article compares Amazon and Dutch Bros as investment options for 2026. Amazon generated $716.9B in revenue with a 10.8% net margin and benefits from strong AWS AI growth (37% YoY), while Dutch Bros shows impressive 27.9% revenue growth to $1.6B with expanding store footprint. Despite Dutch Bros' rapid expansion, Amazon is recommended as the better buy due to its reasonable valuation (24.9x Forward P/E vs 71.6x for Dutch Bros) and significant AI market opportunity through AWS.

Axe note: Amazon’s scale and AI-driven cloud growth make it a safer bet than Dutch Bros’ rapid but riskier expansion.