South African bonds tracked a better rand and were slightly stronger shortly before midday on Friday, with market focus squarely on the US jobs print for August. The world’s largest economy was expected to have created 180,000 jobs in August compared with 209,000 in July, according to a Bloomberg poll. Analysts said the data print often generated market volatility, but substantive effects would occur only if the number surprised. With the current spate of good economic numbers out of the US, there is a slight bias to a better than expected number, but only a significant deviation would give the market direction, said TreasuryOne currency dealer Andre Botha. A higher than expected reading of wage growth was likely to benefit the dollar, as the US Federal Reserve contemplates further interest-rate increases. The dollar, however, remained on the back foot on Friday after the US commerce department said on Thursday that the country’s core inflation came in at an annual 1.4% in July. Tha...
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