{"id":23174,"date":"2026-02-02T08:14:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T06:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-ahead-of-manufacturing-data-car-sales-data\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:01","slug":"rand-weakens-ahead-of-manufacturing-data-car-sales-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-ahead-of-manufacturing-data-car-sales-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand weakens ahead of manufacturing data, car sales data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Monday, pressured by a firmer United States (US) Dollar as investors weighed what the Federal Reserve might look like under President Trump&#8217;s reported pick for chair, Kevin Warsh, while local markets awaited the release of a purchasing managers&#8217; index (PMI).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Rand traded at 16.222 against the Dollar, about 0.4% down from Friday&#8217;s close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;The Rand retreated quite sharply against the stronger Dollar&#8221;. The local currency, which fell by 2.5% on Friday, to close at $1 (R16.12), has opened even softer this morning as gold drops a further 5.0%,&#8221; said Andre Cilliers, Currency Strategist at TreasuryONE in a research note.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the Rand often takes cues from global drivers such as US policy in addition to local factors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">An Absa PMI survey is set to be released and will shed light on manufacturing conditions in Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA manufacturing sentiment fell in December to its lowest level for 2025, driven by steep declines in inventories and employment sub-indices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Investors will then turn their focus to vehicle sales, data for January due, which will give a snapshot of consumer demand for big-ticket items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was also weak in early deals, as the yield rose 7 basis points to 8.105%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23174","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Rand weakened in early trade on Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23174","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\/23174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26227,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23174\/revisions\/26227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}