Rand weaker ahead of likely US interest rate hike
The health of SA’s consumers will be in the spotlight when Stats SA releases its April retail sales report
The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise its interest rate to 2% from 1.75% at 8pm South African time on Wednesday. The rand slid to trade at R13.34 to the dollar, R15.66 to the euro and R17.82 to the pound at 7am as the dollar strengthened after US inflation for May came in higher than the economists’ consensus — making it a near certainty the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will vote for a rise of 25 basis points in interest rates. On the JSE, only Brait is diarised to release results, and this is based on when it released its results in 2017 as it has not issued a trading statement saying when it will publish its results for its 2018 financial year to end-March. But there is plenty of international corporate news to rattle the Johannesburg bourse. Hong Kong-listed ZTE slid as much as 41% to HK$14.98 as it resumed trading after a two-month suspension. The Chinese telecommunications equipment supplier was found guilty of selling technology to Iran and North Korea in cont...
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