As you’d expect, fears over Mexican swine flu hammered airlines and other travel stocks this week, while pharmaceutical companies made solid gains. But overall, the wider market actually managed to end the day higher...

It’s almost impossible to predict a direction for equities these days. Shares on the local exchange seem to be priced in sentiment and uncertainty, rather than value and forecast earnings. In the first three weeks of March, the JSE All Share Index surged 3,302 points to post a 15.4% gain, prompting talk of a market turnaround.

If today’s headline left you with a ‘sitting on the fence’ feeling then we’ll claim success. Because that’s how we feel about the raft of statistics we’re bombarded with on a daily basis.

America may lead the world. But the Golden State leads America. The state is a hothouse of invention...always innovating...always evolving...at such a fast pace the rest of the world gets dizzy trying to keep up. Bill Bonner explores...