{"id":35579,"date":"2026-05-27T10:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35579"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:02:58","slug":"rand-steady-as-traders-eye-middle-east-tensions","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-steady-as-traders-eye-middle-east-tensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand steady as traders eye Middle East tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday as \u200btraders cautiously assessed geopolitical developments after \u200cIran accused the United States (US) of violating a fragile ceasefire by launching attacks near the Strait of \u200bHormuz.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand traded \u200bat 16.3650 against the Dollar, little changed \u2060from its previous close of 16.3750.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200bgreenback last traded flat against a basket of \u200bcurrencies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We are stuck in a narrow range until we get some more interesting data from the US \u200btomorrow and our own SA Reserve Bank \u200bmakes a decision on rates. Even then, I don&#8217;t \u200csee \u2060much of a move. As usual, everything centres on the Gulf,&#8221; Adam Phillips, Treasury Specialist at Umkhulu Treasury, wrote in a \u200bnote.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On Thursday, domestic \u200binvestor \u2060attention will mainly be pinned on the SA Reserve Bank&#8217;s \u200binterest rate decision, when economists polled \u200bby \u2060<i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0expect the bank to hike the rate by 25 basis points to 7% from \u20606.75%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond \u200bwas also flat in early deals, with the yield \u200bat 8.54%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-35579","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35579","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\/35579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35580,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35579\/revisions\/35580"}],"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=35579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}