{"id":33276,"date":"2026-04-29T11:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33276"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:19:18","slug":"rand-slips-ahead-of-federal-decision-amid-iran-war-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-slips-ahead-of-federal-decision-amid-iran-war-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand slips ahead of Federal decision amid Iran war uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Wednesday as investors waited for the \u200bUnited States (US) Federal Reserve\u2019s interest rate decision later in \u200cthe day, watching for clues on the economic fallout from the Iran war as peace talks remain stalled.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Rand traded at 16.5550 against the Dollar, about \u200b0.2% down from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Diplomatic efforts to \u2060end the Iran conflict have stalled, with US President \u200bDonald Trump rejecting Tehran&#8217;s latest proposal and saying Iran had \u200btold Washington it was in a &#8220;state of collapse&#8221; while working out its leadership.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The nearly two-month war in the Middle East has \u200bled to soaring fuel prices, eroding consumer confidence \u200bto a record low and wiping out market pricing for rate \u200ccuts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Investors expect \u2060the Federal to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting later in the day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nedbank economists said in a research note that markets broadly \u200bexpect policy rates \u200bto be \u2060held steady, reflecting a continued &#8220;wait-and-see&#8221; approach amid elevated geopolitical uncertainty and mixed inflation \u200bdynamics.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Fed is expected to keep the \u200bFederal funds \u2060target rate unchanged at 3.75%, as disinflation progress remains uneven and activity data continues to surprise modestly to \u2060the \u200bupside,&#8221; the bank&#8217;s economists said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s \u200bbenchmark 2035 government bond was flat in early deals, with the yield \u200bat 8.76%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-33276","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 Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33276","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\/33276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33277,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33276\/revisions\/33277"}],"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=33276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}