JSE poised for rough session as investors eye eurozone inflation

The JSE was poised for another rough ride on Friday, given the weaker trading session in Asia

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was off 2%, after the negative handover from Wall Street where tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 3%.

The global equity market sell-off has intensified in recent weeks amid worries that aggressive increases in interest rates by the developed markets in particular would hurt global growth.

The JSE, which is largely dominated by multinational companies, headed for its worst monthly performance since June. 

The release of eurozone inflation will be a focal point for investors on Friday given its potential implications for the trajectory of interest rates.

“Another batch of stronger data could tip investors over the edge given how fragile sentiment already is,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note

“It will be interesting to see how they react to any positive surprises — lower inflation, weaker income and spending considering how burned they were by the July CPI data.”

The rand was little changed at 17.96/$ but much weaker on a trend basis, having weakened nearly 5% since the start of September.

Commodity markets were fairly mixed in early trade, with Brent crude easing 0.18% to $88.34 per barrel while platinum edged up 0.57% to $867.60/oz

mahlangua@businesslive.co.za