{"id":29354,"date":"2026-03-20T11:20:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=29354"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:20:24","slug":"rand-weakens-as-dollar-firms-oil-steers-direction","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-as-dollar-firms-oil-steers-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand weakens as Dollar firms, oil steers direction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"x_mail-editor-reference-message-container\" class=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message\">\n<div id=\"x_mail-editor-reference-message-container\">\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Friday, pressured by a \u200bfirmer United States Dollar, while oil market developments \u200cplayed an increasingly important role in shaping the currency&#8217;s direction.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Rand traded at 16.85 against \u200bthe Dollar , about 0.5% down from its \u200bprevious close.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Dollar has emerged as one \u2060of the clearest safe-haven winners, strengthening over 2% so \u200bfar this month.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Dollar rose 0.2% against a \u200bbasket of currencies as Federal Reserve Chairpeson Jerome Powell signalled one rate cut this year.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;The \u2060local currency will continue to take its cue from international moves, with a keen focus on what the oil price does,&#8221; said Andre Cilliers, \u200bCurrency Strategist \u200bat TreasuryONE.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Domestically \u2060focused traders will next week look to the composite leading business cycle \u200bindicator by the Central bank, and producer \u200binflation by the statistics agency for clues on the health of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised nation.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s \u2060benchmark \u200b2035 government bond was firmer \u200bin early deals, as the yield fell 5.5 basis points to \u200b8.995%.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-29354","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand weakened in early trade on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29354","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\/29354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29355,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29354\/revisions\/29355"}],"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=29354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}