Breaking News Today – Friday 13 February 2026

Business News Today 

SONA 2026 Misfires But Gives Hope for Automotive and Ferro-chrome Sectors

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last night in Cape Town. He laid out a pretty frank take on South Africa’s challenges and bleak outlook with growing crime, gangsterism, illegal mining, and especially the worsening water crisis (which has hit Johannesburg hard, with some areas dry for weeks and protests popping up). Key announcements included deploying the SANDF to support police in the Western Cape and Gauteng against gangs and “zama zamas” (illegal miners), plus promises to hold municipal officials accountable for water failures and fast-track infrastructure fixes.

Ramaphosa finally announced new incentives for the automotive industry that has been delayed for over a year: “From March this year, we will introduce a 150 percent tax deduction for investment in new energy vehicles, while supporting the local production of batteries.”This measure aims to encourage investment in EV-related manufacturing and infrastructure, aligning with global trends toward electrification and helping South Africa avoid being sidelined in future value chains (e.g., battery production and assembly). Ramaphosa stated: “We have moved to revive our ferrochrome industry and to protect jobs in our steel, automotive and other sectors which employ hundreds of thousands of South Africans in good quality jobs.”Social media lit-up last night with most commentators giving the president the thumbs down.

South African Manufacturing Shrinks Further

Manufacturing activity in South Africa fell by -1.4% year-on-year in December 2025 according to the latest data release by Stats SA. This marks a two-month downturn following an upwardly revised -2% decline in November. Food and beverages (-4.6%, -1.4 percentage points), wood and wood products, paper, publishing, and printing (-5.2%, -0.6 points), and basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products, and machinery (-2.3%, -0.4 points) were the largest contributors to the decline. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, output decreased by 1.2%, after an upwardly revised 2.1% slump in the previous month. In 2025, total manufacturing production shrank by 1.3% compared with 2024.

Mining production however saw an overall increased of 2,5% year-on-year in December 2025, but with the key PGM export sector decreasing by -7.7%, with the and coal mining sector showing a -5,7% drop in production. The largest positive contributors were iron ore up 19,0% and manganese ore up by 40,4%.

AI Concerns Spark Tech Sell-off

Tech share prices in the Us took a bashing yesterday, with Apple losing around 5% and shedding a remarkable $200 billion in market value, its worst day since April 2025. The latest slump was sparked by Cisco, whose margins were squeezed by the soaring costs of memory chips, spooking investors priced for booming profits. Fears are also mounting that AI’s disruption to jobs is just getting started. Logistics and trucking companies were sold hard overnight, not so long after software stocks dived as Anthropic’s release of Claude Cowork fuelled job worries. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman told the FT he expects most white-collar tasks to be fully automated in the next 12-18 months.

Bitcoin Volatility Increases

Bitcoin prices dropped to around $66,000 this morning, and briefly traded as low as $62,000 giving up most of its recent gains as cryptocurrencies came under renewed pressure. The decline followed warnings from Standard Chartered about further Bitcoin weakness, alongside disappointing results from US crypto exchange Coinbase. Bitcoin has dropped more than 45% from its October peak above $126,000, and repeated failed rebounds indicate waning speculative demand. 

Coinbase reported a $667 million loss in the fourth quarter, with revenue down over 20% to $1.8 billion, headlining the impact of falling crypto currency prices on trading activity. Analysts caution that while Bitcoin could recover, a sustained breach below the $60,000–$58,000 range, could see may deeper losses toward the high $40,000s. in the past month Bitcoin is down 31.65%, reflecting broader weakness in the tech sector.

Breaking News Shorts:  

• Anthropic has raised $30 billion in its latest funding round, doubling the Claude chatbot creator’s valuation to $380 billion highlighting the widespread investor interest in the startup and the broader AI industry.The company has differentiated itself by focusing its model training on coding, with Claude Code gaining strong traction among developers
• Aurora, the autonomous vehicle company’s self-driving trucks have now achieved a 1,000-mile (1609 km) nonstop travel distance on a route between Fort Worth and Phoenix. This exceeds what a human driver can legally accomplish.The distance, and the time it takes to travel it, offers up positive financial implications for Aurora and other companies hoping to commercialise self-driving semi-trucks.
• US administration officials have signed a reciprocal trade agreement with Taiwan with a 15% U.S. tariff rate for imports from Taiwan, while committing Taiwan to a schedule for eliminating or lowering tariffs on nearly all U.S. goods.The document released by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office yesterday also commits Taiwan to significantly boost purchases of U.S. goods from 2025 through 2029,
• Silver prices are staging a come-back this morning and currently up by over 2.3%. While still heading for a weekly drop of over -1%, the precious metal looks to be heading for a recovery period. nvestors are now focused on the latest US inflation data, which could shape expectations for Federal Reserve policy. Stronger-than-expected US jobs figures released earlier this week reduced the likelihood of a near-term rate cut
• Gold futures saw an up-tick to around $4,975 per ounce this morning, after a drop of more than 3% in the previous session, as markets navigated tightened volatility. Thursday’s drop occurred during a broad market sell-off that led investors to liquidate precious metals to raise cash.

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar gaining further ground to major currencies today, with the Greenback trading against the Euro at 1.18599 while trading against the Pound at 1.36007 to the US dollar. The Yen is currently trading at 153.33 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently loosing traction and trading at around R15.98 against the dollar.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures lost momentum yesterday, but have moved upwards by around 0.7% this morning, and currently trading at around $4957.30 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trending marginally higher today, with prices currently around $57.873 per pound
• Silver futures have gained around 1.4% today, and currently trading around $76.250 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are around -0.5% lower this morning, and currently trading at $2012.10, While Palladium prices are flat this morning, and currently trading around $1657.50 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending lower today, and currently at $67.37 with WTI trading higher at $62.57
• Cocoa futures continue its downward momentum today, and currently trading around $3765 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are currently trending higher today, and trading at around $2.9250 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are trending flat today, and trading at around $66141 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are down around -0.7% today, and are currently trading around $1933.45
• $Trumpcoin are currently trading around $3.25

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H55 Central African Time) 

Africa News Briefs:

• Today marks the start of the 39th annual meeting of the African Union, which kicks off its leaders’ summit this morning. Delegations are expected from the 55 member states with a key focus of the meeting expected to be the new, disruptive global environment driven by the United States president’s second term. Over the past year, US policy toward Africa has introduced a degree of uncertainty that will inevitably shape how African leaders approach this summit with a clear move away from broad multilateral engagement and large-scale development programming, toward a more transactional, security- and deal-focused approach by the US administration.
• President William Ruto has announced that Kenya’s border with Somalia is set to re-open in April 2026, almost 15 years after it was closed due to security risks of attacks by Islamist militant group al-Shabab. The plan had been announced prior, in 2023, but further attacks postponed the arrangements. Ruto said the intention to re-open two crossings follows years of security assessments, and said that there would be a heavy deployment of security forces to ensure the opening does not compromise safety.