{"id":12605,"date":"2025-10-08T08:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-muted-on-risk-aversion-as-us-shutdown-drags-on\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:25:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:25:53","slug":"rand-muted-on-risk-aversion-as-us-shutdown-drags-on","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-muted-on-risk-aversion-as-us-shutdown-drags-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand muted on risk aversion as US shutdown drags on"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was flat in early trade on Wednesday, mirroring most emerging market currencies, as investor concerns over a prolonged United States (US) government shutdown drove demand for safe-haven assets.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Rand traded at 17.25 against the Dollar , little changed from Tuesday&#8217;s close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Dollar index , which measures the greenback&#8217;s strength against a basket of currencies, traded 0.3% firmer, while gold pushed through $4 000 an ounce to hit a record level on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The US government shutdown entered its seventh day on Tuesday and has postponed the release of key economic indicators from the world&#8217;s biggest economy, forcing investors to rely on secondary, non-government data to gauge the timing and extent of Fed rate cuts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Despite expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut, the Dollar remains robust, supported by the US&#8217; political and economic uncertainties,&#8221; said ETM Analytics in a research note, adding that this has translated into the rand losing some ground.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often takes cues from global drivers such as US policy and economic data.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond edged up in early deals, as the yield fell 1.5 basis points to 9.165%.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12528,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78],"class_list":["post-12605","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Rand was flat in early trade on Wednesday||Rand was flat in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18132,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12605\/revisions\/18132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}