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

2026-07-22 18:30 • The Motley Fool Positive Axe Cap view: Selective

Strong earnings from major banks JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, driven by robust investment banking and lending activity, signal a healthy economy that should benefit smaller banks like SoFi. With lending up significantly and the SpaceX IPO boosting retail investment platforms, SoFi is well-positioned ahead of its Q2 earnings report on July 29.

Axe note: JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs’ strong earnings suggest a solid lending and investment banking environment that South African banks may soon benefit from.

2026-07-22 18:25 • The Motley Fool Mixed Axe Cap view: Selective

As AI infrastructure shifts from training large language models to inference and agentic AI workloads, AMD is positioned to outperform Nvidia. AMD's chiplet design with greater memory capacity, MEXT acquisition for memory optimization, and leadership in high-performance data center CPUs position it well for the growing demand in inference and agentic AI applications where CPU-to-GPU ratios will increase significantly.

Axe note: As AI shifts toward inference and agentic workloads, AMD’s chip and CPU edge may outpace Nvidia, with implications for the rand and SA tech exposure.

2026-07-22 18:17 • The Motley Fool Neutral Axe Cap view: Selective

Archer Aviation and Lucid Group represent contrasting bets on transportation's future—one in urban air mobility via eVTOL aircraft, the other in luxury electric vehicles. Archer trades at an extremely high 1,890x P/S ratio reflecting early commercialization, while Lucid has a lower 1.7x P/S but burns cash three times faster. The article suggests Lucid may be the better 2026 bet despite higher cash burn, given Archer's valuation premium and regulatory uncertainties, though both remain high-risk ventures.

Axe note: Archer Aviation trades on sky-high promise, while Lucid offers grounded growth but burns cash fast.