Rand weaker as investors assess US political developments

The rand was on track to break a three-day winning streak on Monday as former president Donald Trump assassination attempt raised bets that he might win the November elections.

Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the attempted assassination leaving one attendee and the gunman dead, and two more attendees critical but stable.

Traders were monitoring the latest developments with the attempted assassination and its potential to lead to more political strife in the US, reported Bloomberg.

“This [the attempted assassination] resulted in the dollar rallying across the board, reinforcing the notion that Trump’s chances of winning the election have now increased,” said RMB head of forex execution Matete Thulare.

At 10.36am, the rand had strengthened 0.62% to R18.0519/$, 0.34% to R19.6859/€ and 0.47% to R23.4428/£. The euro was little changed at $1.0906.

Locally, investors are looking to the SA Reserve Bank monetary policy committee (MPC) this week, with the interest rate decision expected on Thursday.

The consensus forecast is that the MPC is likely to keep the repo rate steady at 8.25%.

At 10.40am, the JSE all share had lost 0.31% to 81,430.13 points and the top 40 0.43%. Food producers had added 0.88%, SA listed property 0.83%, banks 0.21% and financials 0.19%. Resources had lost 0.94%, precious metals 0.86% and industrial metals 0.74%. 

At the same time in Europe, the FTSE 100 was little changed, France’s CAC 40 was down 0.34% and Germany’s DAX 0.14%.

Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai Composite was unchanged, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.55% and Japan’s Nikkei 2.45%.

In the commodities market, gold was unchanged at $2,410.74/oz, while platinum lost 0.16% to $997.20/oz. Brent crude was 0.28% firmer at $85.19 a barrel.

tsobol@businesslive.co.za