"Ping-pong balls in a washing machine"
Adding a bit to cash, updating stock watchlists, further stock updates soon
"I'm going to punch your eyes so far into the back of your head that they'll be bouncing around like ping-pong balls in a washing machine."
This was a favourite catchphrase of Mr. Brandse. He was a big, bearded, bulky, South African, rugby-playing fellow that taught me Geography in my early teens.
Ah, the 1980s. Before helicopter parents and general wokery.
At a school parent-teacher evening, when I was about fifteen, Mr. Brandse said the following to my parents (with me present):
"Robert is academically arrogant. I wish I'd taken him aside two years ago and punched him."
After hearing all the bland platitudes from my other teachers, my Dad's conclusion afterwards was "I really liked that Mr. Brandse."
The following was another favourite class catchphrase of said geography teacher:
"I'm going to punch your teeth so far down the back of your throat that they'll come marching out of your backside like tin soldiers."
These days, one suspects that Mr. Brandse's teaching career would not have lasted long...
Which would have been a pity, since he was actually an excellent and entertaining teacher, and he never actually laid a hand on any kids. He just knew how to focus the attention of wayward teenage boys.
Anyway, the ping-pong image came to mind this morning. That's having witnessed the violent market volatility that's been provoked by Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff sledgehammer, and subsequent policy flip-flopping.
It's taken a big swing at the ping-pong balls of world markets, and they have reacted in a suitably chaotic manner.
Since my last update earlier in the week, there have been the following developments:
The US further increased import tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%
China further increased import tariffs on US goods to 125%
US stocks dropped again after Wednesday's sharp rally
Prices of US treasury bonds (and others) continue to slide (meaning yields continue to rise)
The US dollar is weakening again against other major currencies
The dollar gold price has taken another leg up ($3,240 per troy ounce at the time of writing)
What I've been doing these past two weeks
In the days running up to "Liberation Day", I was doing a deep dive analysis on a stock that I thought might be good to write up here.
The big-picture growth story for this company is strong, on a multi-year view. But reading through the detailed notes of the annual report threw out a number of red flags.