We don't invest in Chinese stocks, even though we could, since many of them are listed in New York, or trade there via US Dollar-priced ADRs (American Depositary Receipts).

This may seem strange, since China is the world's second-largest economy, and arguably its most dynamic. The problem is Chinese politics. The CCP (communist party in Beijing) is simply not interested in protecting the rights of foreign investors. They make policy changes on the fly, jail CEOs and impose hefty fines for vague "antitrust violations". When things go wrong, there's no independent judicial system to appeal to.

China has a chequered relationship with capitalism. Byrne Hobart points out that:

"China shows that industrial policy can lead to massive GDP growth, and lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. On the other hand, one of the reasons those people were so impoverished in the first place was China's previous round of industrial policy - backyard steel production, mass relocation from rural areas to cities, and an attendant famine."

George Magnus wrote this in the FT:

"The negative impact of Chinese industrial policy on the world economy is so large that Donald Trump's tariffs are, by comparison, a minor nuisance. The Chinese obsession with exports is not only aggravating China's own domestic systemic problems, but becoming increasingly problematic for a growing number of countries. China craves self-reliance in key technologies and resilient supply chains, and thinks national security is a big deal. More specifically, it desperately needs something to pick up the slack from the structural funk in real estate and overbuilding of uncommercial infrastructure, absent a marked shift towards a more consumption-driven growth model."

All this drama and economic meddling raises more red flags than a state-sponsored event on Tiananmen Square.

There is a lot of talk about an AI bubble at the moment and how this all resonates with the dot-com burst in the early 2000s. I don't buy the argument, the differences between then and now are just too vast.

The money being spent on AI is backed up by immediate demand. These tools are being used on a daily basis by billions of people and all the service providers in the industry are scrambling to keep up with the demand. This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff; it's real and big money is changing hands.

Importantly, the companies operating in the sector are large and serious businesses with huge cash piles, unlimited talent and executives with proven track records.

Almost any stock that has a connection to AI is doing well at the moment. That's fine, it is quite normal for euphoria to influence a sector that is growing so fast. But I still don't believe it is a bubble. There will however, be some isolated bubbles and certain share prices will crash if they cannot live up to the high expectations. Before buying into anything with an AI flavour, do your research and make sure you are backing the right horses.

I'm regularly reminded about how lucky we are to have SuperSport in South Africa. All the big sporting events, in one place and easily available, for the dollar equivalent of around $40 a month. If you think about how much you get, that isn't badly priced.

In most developed markets, you need to pay for multiple broadcasting subscriptions to get the same level of sports coverage. Sometimes you even need multiple subs just to watch the same sport. I was reminded of this again on the news that Netflix is bidding to show one UEFA Champions League football game per round. That's not exactly useful if you are a big football fan. On SuperSport, you can watch every single game of that tournament, sometimes, 6 matches are being broadcast at the same time.

As a Netflix shareholder, I'm glad to see that they are pursuing more mainstream sporting deals. Even though one football match a round isn't anything to write home about, it is a first step, and a place to build from.

Berkshire Hathaway is cutting a $9.7 billion cash deal to buy Occidental Petroleum's chemical arm, OxyChem, in what could be Buffett's last major deal before handing the reins to Greg Abel at year-end.

This is Berkshire's biggest acquisition since the $11.6 billion Allegheny deal back in 2022, but it is still far from the "elephant-sized" purchase Buffett has long hunted for.

The deal deepens Berkshire's ties with Occidental, where it already holds a 27% stake worth nearly $12 billion and collects about $600 million annually in preferred dividends. Occidental will use most of the proceeds to pay down debt and restart share buybacks.

The sector's earnings are depressed, meaning Berkshire may have bagged a bargain just before a cyclical upswing, classic Buffett.

Picasso or Bitcoin? The art market is failing to attract the highest spenders - How art's status is changing among the super-rich.

More smartphone apps are allowing for AI integration. Here's a cool example - Use ChatGPT to create a Spotify playlist.

Asian markets are mixed this morning. Japan, Australia, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia edged up, while New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore slipped. Mount Pleasant-based Strickland Metals surged over 30% after reporting strong exploration results from its Rogozna Gold & Base Metals Project in Serbia.

In local company news, Dubai-founded fintech Optasia plans a R6.3 billion IPO on the JSE, the bourse's largest fintech listing yet, testing investor appetite for its AI-powered airtime lending platform across global markets.

US equity futures are currently slightly lower. The Rand is at R17.15 to the US Dollar.

There's good news this morning from the Middle East. Let's give peace a chance.