Breaking News Today – Wednesday 3 December 2025

Business News Today

Amazon Announces On-Site AI Service Offering

Amazon announced a new innovative AI product yesterday called “AI Factories”. The service would allow big corporations and governments to run its AI systems in their own data centres, where customers supply the power source and the data centre, and AWS plugs in the AI system, manages it, and can tie it into other AWS cloud services. The concept is to cater to companies and governments concerned with data sovereignty, or absolute control over their data and preventing data leaks to competitor’s or foreign adversaries. An on-premises AI Factory means circumventing sending their data to a model maker and not ever having to share hardware platforms with other users, increasing data security.

Ithala Bank Bail-out Raises Accountability Questions

The Ithala Bank saga continues to unfold with Treasury providing a R2.2 Billion bail-out to the dysfunctional bank yesterday. South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority declared Ithala technically insolvent, in January 2025, froze all 250,000+ deposit accounts (impacting low-income savers and grant recipients), and sought court-ordered liquidation in Pietermaritzburg High Court. Local courts however, allowed non-deposit activities (e.g., lending) to persist under a Repayment Administrator, but deposits remained inaccessible, sparking public outcry and growing political pressure. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) suspended Ithala’s financial services license in August 2024 for governance lapses. National Treasury stepped in with a R2 billion guarantee in May 2025 to cap losses at R100,000 per depositor.

The saga peaked yesterday, when Treasury finalised a R2.2 billion bailout (a repayable guarantee/loan) to fully reimburse depositors, halting liquidation processes. Payouts via FNB branches will start on December 8, targeting full access to depositors funds before Christmas, easing immediate hardship. The move is creating a highly unpopular taxpayer-funded rescue amid regulatory failures and no accountability for the directors and local government who owns the banking institution. The bank had been operation without a renewed banking licence for some time.

Crypto Flags a Come-Back

Bitcoin surged back above $93000 this morning, up 2.23% and rebounding strongly after dropping to a seven month low below $84,000 in late November. The rally reflected a return of risk appetite, supported by expectations of further US Federal Reserve rate cuts. Markets are currently projecting an 89% probability of a 25 basis point US Federal reserve rate cut next week, with about 90 basis points of total easing priced in for 2026. Sentiment was further reinforced by speculation that White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett could be nominated as the next Fed chair, given his support for faster rate reductions.

Gains were also bolstered by positive industry developments, including US SEC Chairman Paul Atkins signalling plans for an “innovation exemption” for digital asset companies and Vanguard Group announcing that ETFs and mutual funds primarily holding cryptocurrencies will be tradable on its platform. Other Crypto majors have followed with strong gains today, including Binance – up 2.5% Cardano -up 2.%, and Solana up by 2.7%

Breaking News Shorts: 

• The prediction market platform Kalshi, which allows people to bet on future events, announced on Tuesday that it raised $1 billion in funding, establishing an $11 billion valuation. Funding was led by Paradigm, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Capital G. The latest funding comes less than two months after Kalshi announced a $300 million raise and $5 billion valuation.
• South Africa’s GDP increased by 0.5% in the third quarter, following an increase of 0.9% in the second quarter, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reports. Key growth drivers were the mining and quarrying industry with an increase of 2,3%, finance, real estate and business services industry (up 0.3%) and government services increasing by 0,7%,.
• Shares in Hong Kong dipped 273 points, or 1.0%, to 25,826 in early trade this morning, reversing gains from the prior two sessions amid steep, broad-based losses across sectors. Traders were nervous ahead of key policy events in China, including the annual Central Economic Work Conference and the December Politburo meeting.
• Egypt’s non-oil private sector recorded its fastest growth in five years in November, driven by sharp increases in output and new orders, a business survey showed on Wednesday.The S&P Global Egypt Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 51.1 last month from 49.2 in October, topping the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction for the first time since February. That marked the index’s highest level since October 2020.
• French oil major TotalEnergies has secured capital to continue the Mozambican LNG Project. Total and its partners in the $20 billion Mozambique LNG project have agreed to provide additional equity to replace the previous contributions of British and Dutch export credit agencies, it announced yesterday.

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar is softer today, with the Euro trading against the US dollar at 1.16460 while the Pound is trading at 1.32414 to the US dollar. The Yen is currently trading at 155.55 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR) is currently at R17.09 to the US dollar.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are fairly flat this morning, and are currently trading around $4208.00 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trending 0,2% higher today, with prices currently around $5.1594
• Silver futures prices have dropped by around -0.5% this morning, and currently trading around $5.8164
• Platinum futures are trending upwards this morning, and currently trading at $1653.30, While Palladium prices are -0,77% lower this morning, and currently trading around $1474.50 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are marginally higher today, and currently at $62.52 with WTI trading at $58.74
• Cocoa futures are trending lower today, and currently trading around $5401.00 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are flat this morning, and are currently trading at around $4.0442 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices have gained more than 2.8% today, and trading at around $93888 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are 2.81% higher this morning, and are currently trading around $3081.76
• $Trumpcoin are trending higher today, and currently trading around $6.074

(All prices quoted at approximately 08H25 Central African Time) 

Africa News Briefs:

• Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, has resigned from his position with immediate effect for health reasons, the president’s office has said. His departure coincides with a period of heightened security challenges across Nigeria, with the government under pressure to deal with a spate of mass kidnappings.Last week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that around 402 people, mostly schoolchildren, had been kidnapped since mid-November. A retired general, Christopher Musa, has been nominated by President Bola Tinubu as Abubakar’s replacement.
• Police have arrested prominent Tunisian opposition figure Ayachi Hammami at his home yesterday to enforce a five-year prison term on a conviction for conspiracy against state security, according to Reuters. An appeals court handed down jail terms of up to 45 years last week to dozens of opposition leaders including Hammami, business figures and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied.