Rand is ending the week on the front foot

After the week the Rand had, we have seen the Rand ending the week on the front foot. The Rand is under pressure from local factors and a stronger US dollar, and we did see the Rand reach R18.28 during trade today. The US dollar was within eye-sight of the 1.0600 level but has since retreated towards 1.0650, giving Rand a bit of respite. The fact that the US market is out of action next week Monday probably helped the move lower as market players are squaring off positions. Next week we have the South African budget to look forward to, which could impact the Rand movements.  

Commodities under pressure

The commodity market is a sea of red today, with all the major commodities losing ground, with Brent Crude the commodity taking the most strain and trading at $82.50 a barrel. Gold has lost more than $130 in the past couple of weeks and is currently trading at $1,826 per ounce. With the US dollar on the front foot, we expect commodities to remain under pressure volatility and will be the name of the game in the future.

#ZAR #FinancialMarkets #ExchangeRateRisk #SouthAfrica