{"id":22445,"date":"2026-01-15T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-steady-as-trump-calms-market-fears-by-adopting-softer-tone-on-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:26","slug":"rand-steady-as-trump-calms-market-fears-by-adopting-softer-tone-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-steady-as-trump-calms-market-fears-by-adopting-softer-tone-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand steady as Trump calms market fears by adopting softer tone on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady in early trading on Thursday, after United States (US) President Donald Trump calmed market anxiety over potential US military action against Iran.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the Rand often takes its cues from global drivers such as US policy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded at 16.4050 against the Dollar, unchanged from its previous closing level.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Trump said on Wednesday afternoon that killings during Iran&#8217;s crackdown on nationwide protests were subsiding and suggested that he was adopting a wait-and-see posture toward the crisis.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The US Dollar was slightly stronger against a basket of currencies, while gold prices trailed back as Trump&#8217;s seemingly softer geopolitical tone dampened safe-haven demand.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He also said on Wednesday that he had no plans to fire Fed Chairperson Jerome Powell, despite the Justice Department criminal investigation, but added it was &#8220;too early&#8221; to say what he would ultimately do.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s local currency is expected to remain range-bound as traders continue to track developments on the unrest in Iran, the Fed&#8217;s independence and a potential extension of the US trade preference programme, the African Growth and Opportunity Act.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The US House of Representatives approved a three-year extension, but uncertainty remains over whether SA will be excluded, given strained diplomatic relations between Washington and Pretoria.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The bill will next go to the US Senate.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was last up 0.4% in early trade.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was flat with the yield at 8.295%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-22445","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Rand was steady in early trading on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22445","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\/22445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25743,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22445\/revisions\/25743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}