{"id":28867,"date":"2026-03-16T11:11:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28867"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:12:13","slug":"rand-gains-as-softer-dollar-offsets-reduced-fed-cut-hopes","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-gains-as-softer-dollar-offsets-reduced-fed-cut-hopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand gains as softer Dollar offsets reduced Fed cut hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand strengthened in early trade on Monday, as a softer Dollar \u200bhelped offset fading hopes of a near-term \u200cinterest rate cut by the Unite States (US) Federal Reserve due to the elevated energy prices.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Rand traded at 16.89 against the Dollar, about \u200b0.3% up from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The greenback \u2060nudged lower as stabilising oil prices encouraged traders \u200bto unwind positions that had been hedging against \u200bheightened risk aversion.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gold prices, a key SA export, were steady on Monday after recovering from an earlier near 1% drop, \u200bsupported by a softer Dollar.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Rand has \u200balways been sensitive to global risk appetite. Investors will be \u200cforced \u2060to sell riskier, high-volatility investments to shore up their portfolios and trades potentially. For now, the Rand remains on the defensive, and that trading action \u200bis likely \u200bto extend \u2060through the week ahead,&#8221; said ETM Analytics in a research note.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the Johannesburg \u200bStock Exchange, the Top-40 index was \u200blast up \u20600.7% in early trade.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond was weaker in early deals, as the \u2060yield \u200brose 5 basis points to 8.98%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-28867","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand strengthened in early trade on Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28867","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\/28867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28868,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28867\/revisions\/28868"}],"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=28867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}