{"id":34554,"date":"2026-05-15T10:09:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=34554"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:09:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:09:32","slug":"34554","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/34554\/","title":{"rendered":"Untitled"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Africa’s (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Friday as a stronger Dollar and rising oil prices weighed on \u200brisk sentiment, with global markets also watching the final \u200cday of the summit between United States (US) President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Rand traded at 16.6426 against the Dollar, about 1% down \u200bfrom its previous close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The greenback was firmer against a basket \u200bof currencies and was set for its biggest weekly gain \u2060in more than two months.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Global oil prices rose more than 1% \u200bafter Trump said China wanted to buy oil from the US and \u200bas concerns persisted over ship attacks and seizures in the Strait of Hormuz despite Iran saying around 30 vessels had passed through the waterway.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The risk-sensitive rand has \u200bweakened sharply this morning in line with the weaker emerging \u200bmarket and commodity currencies,” said Andre Cilliers, Currency Strategist at TreasuryONE, adding that \u200crate \u2060hike and inflation fears were weighing on risk sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often takes cues from global drivers. It has been at the mercy of global market sentiment since the start \u200bof the US and Israeli \u200bwar with Iran \u2060at the end of February.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The rand closed at 16.45 yesterday, but even since the announcement of \u200bUS data, it has been riding on the back \u200bof \u2060commodity prices, especially platinum. These all came off last night, quite quickly, coupled with the oil price moving up,” Adam Phillips, treasury specialist \u2060at \u200bUmkhulu Treasury, wrote in a note.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SA’s \u200bbenchmark 2035 government bond was weaker in early deals, as the yield rose 1 \u200bbasis point to 8.765%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-34554","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"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\/34554","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\/34554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34555,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34554\/revisions\/34555"}],"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=34554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}