If the JSE takes its cue from global markets on Wednesday, it could track higher, following fresh records on Wall Street overnight. Asian markets retreated from a decade high, though, ahead of the JSE’s open on Wednesday, while a mixed picture is expected from local economic data. Statistics SA reports retail trade sales for July at 1pm. Economists are expecting growth in the sector to have slowed a bit from June’s 2.9%, with forecasts in a range of 2.4%-2.7%. The retail sector is an important driver of economic growth. A more gloomy reading is forecast in the third-quarter RMB/BER business confidence index, which has been mired below the 50-point mark for all but four readings in the past nine years. In the first quarter it rose two points to 40, but then plunged to 29 points in the second quarter. Rating agency Moody’s — which holds its 12th sub-Saharan African summit in Joburg on Wednesday — published reports on Tuesday on the declining credit quality of SA’s corporate sector and...
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