While stage 6 load shedding certainly did not help the cause of the Rand, we have seen broad base weakness in EM's as the stronger US dollar. There is also a  "fear" that the Fed could hike rates by 100 basis points, and this has sent a little shiver through EM as we have seen the Rand in sight of the R17.80 level. With the Fed announcing their rate decision on Wednesday, it could be a case of "buy the rumor, sell the fact" if the Fed raises by 75 basis points. We do, for the moment, feel that EMs could push slightly higher before everything kicks off on Wednesday evening.

With the Fed fear instilled in markets and the talks of recession all over the place, we have seen commodities also have a red day. With a recession, one could expect demand for commodities to wane, and with that, we have seen a sell-off in precious metals. We have also seen Brent facing headwinds with a barrel edging toward the $90 per barrel level. With such a significant event in the week, we do expect markets to stay fairly muted until Wednesday evening and could see major swings in commodity prices.

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