Some fireworks before US Independence Day on Tuesday occurred when glitches in stock price feeds used by various websites made it appear as if tech giants, including Amazon and Microsoft, had halved in value. Nasdaq blamed third-party distributors of its price feeds, saying they had accidently served their customers test data instead of actual share prices. No trades were done at the wrong prices, according to electronic stock market operator. Although the US share crash was not real, Nasdaq’s tech problems appear to have unsettled Asian markets, sending Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 1.11%, Shanghai’s composite index down 0.5% and Tokyo’s Topix index down 0.21%. On Monday at about 4.20pm the rand started to slide from R13.05/$, reaching R13.24/$ at about 1.30am. The local currency was trading at R13.21/$, R15.03/€ and R17.11/£ at 7am on Tuesday morning. The JSE’s miners gained from the weaker rand, helping Glencore rise 5.04% to R51.48, BHP 3.61% to R206.87 and Anglo American 3.3...

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