Breaking News Today – Thursday 24 July 2025

Business & Tech News 

South African Business Association Rejects new Employment Bill

In a strongly worded letter to President Ramaphosa yesterday, the National Employer Association of South Africa, NESA, has criticised the amended employment equity act and quota system signed by the President on 14 April 2025. NESA have rejected the race based quotas that have been imposed on all businesses with more than 50 employees, with NESA claiming that the act is unconstitutional and forces employees to do the “dirty work of the government” in having to force employees to race, gender and disability wise, classify themselves.

The regulations will in essence force employees to unilaterally and arbitrarily, classify employees by race, gender and disability class which is constitutionally untenable and hails back to the days of apartheid where government did the same. NERSA maintains that the Government is forcing them to do something that the government itself has no authority to do, placing employers in an ethically and legally vulnerable position.

EU Car Sales Fall With EV Sales Growing

Passenger car registrations in the European Union dropped by -7.3% year-on-year (yoy), to 1.01 million units in June 2025, reversing a 1.6% rise seen in May. This was the first decline in car registrations since April, with sales falling in all four of the EU’s largest markets: Belgium (-16.4%), Germany (-13.8%), Spain (-45.2%), and Italy (-34.4%). Registrations in the battery electric vehicle segment, however, grew by 7.8%, driven notably by a surge in Spain – up by a significant 103.2%. Increases were also recorded in Germany up by 8.6% and the Netherlands saw a 6.4% increase. However, registrations declined in Belgium by-6.9% and Italy by -40.4%. For H1 of 2025, overall car registrations in the EU fell by 1.9% yoy. New battery-electric car sales rose by 12.5%, reaching 869,271 units and capturing 15.6% of the total EU market share.

Alphabet Numbers Propelled by AI Income

Tech giant Alphabet, the parent company to Google, has seen its second quarter earnings increase to $28,2 billion, and increase of 14% year-on-year. Google’s accelerating shift into artificial intelligence products and services was the major contributing factor to the growth. Earnings per share grew by 19% to $2.31 per share, above market analyst expectations. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai commented on the results saying “We had a standout quarter, with robust growth across the company. We are at the leading frontier of AI”.

Business, Tech & Market News Shorts: 

• The au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing PMI unexpectedly dropped to 48.8 in July 2025 from June’s final reading of 50.1, which marked the first time in 13 months that the index exceeded the 50.0 threshold separating expansion from contraction,
• The Johannesburg Stock Exchange hit a new all-time high of over 100 000 points yesterday, marking a historic event and driven by the recent growth the stock market has seen particularly in the resource sector, with gold and platinum and others hitting new high futures prices.
• The HSBC India Manufacturing PMI climbed to 59.2 in July, from 58.4 in June, according to preliminary estimates. The latest figure signalled expansion in manufacturing activity and marked the highest reading in nearly 17-and-a-half years, highlighting the sector’s continued momentum. 

Markets by Numbers 

Currencies: 

Currency markets today indicate the US Dollar is slightly softer this morning, and trading against the Euro at 1.17770 and against the Pound at 1.35798 The Yen is currently at 146.00 to the dollar. The rand is currently at R17.52 to the US dollar. 

Commodities:

• Gold futures prices are currently trading softer and currently at $3381.11 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trading almost 1% higher today, and currently at $5.8673 
• Silver futures prices are also trading lower today, and currently at $39.097
• Platinum futures are around 0,7% lower this morning, and are currently trading at $1427.90 While Palladium prices are trading 0,6% lower this morning and currently at $1328.50
• Brent crude oil prices are currently at $68.76, with WTI trading at $65.50. 
• Cocoa futures have jumped by almost 4% this morning, and currently at $8460 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are currently trading over 1% higher at $299

Crypto Currencies:

• Bitcoin prices are trending slightly 0,7% lower today, and currently at $117896
• Ether prices are trending 0,6% lower this morning and currently at $3597
• $Trumpcoin is currently trading around $9.88

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H40 Central African Time) 

Other Breaking News in Africa Today

UK Aid to Africa to be Slashed:

The UK government has revealed details of its plans for cutting foreign aid, following an announcement in February that it planned to trim foreign aid by 40%. The impact of this is that support for children’s education and women’s health in Africa will be facing the most impact by the reductions.

The government it would cut foreign aid spending from around 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% – with the goal of increasing their defence spending to 2.5%, with growing realisation in the UK and the EU that the US will no longer be funding NATO operations and defence initiatives on their own. The impact according to a new Foreign Office report and assessment show the biggest cuts this year will come in Africa, with less spent on women’s health and water sanitation with increased risks, it says, of disease and death. Criticism regarding the funding reductions has come from aid charities that have criticised the move, saying the cuts would impact the world’s most vulnerable people.