South African futures tracked losses on the JSE on Friday, as the Dow opened softer, and the weekend began with aggressive rhetoric between the US and North Korea. Geopolitical risk spiked on Friday, after North Korea threatened to respond to a speech delivered by US President Donald Trump to the UN earlier in the week by testing a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. Local markets had largely been processing the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates at current levels, and the US Federal Reserve’s policy statement. This had weighed on the markets, but analysts said both North Korea and the Reserve Bank decision had supported the rand on Friday. German elections take place on Sunday, but were unlikely to significantly move the euro or the bond market, Barclay’s Research analysts said. 2017 was initially billed as a key year for European political risk, but results so far had failed to spring the populist shock that some were expecting, with the German election unlikely to surpris...
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