{"id":36472,"date":"2026-06-08T10:04:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36472"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:04:05","slug":"rand-weakens-as-oil-rises-on-geopolitical-jitters","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-as-oil-rises-on-geopolitical-jitters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand weakens as oil rises on geopolitical jitters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">South Africa&#8217;s (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Monday as rising oil prices amid renewed Middle East tensions \u200bweighed on global risk appetite, putting pressure on the \u200ccurrency.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Rand traded at 16.6050 against the United States (US) Dollar , down about 0.3% from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Dollar was perched near \u200ba two-month high on Monday after a strong US jobs \u200breport boosted expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike, \u2060while Brent oil prices jumped more than $4 a barrel.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Israel said \u200bit hit a petrochemical plant in Iran&#8217;s southwest, along with strikes elsewhere \u200bon military targets, even after US President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Three forces are piling \u200bpressure on the local currency at the same time: the \u200bstronger greenback, rising oil prices and growing unease over the Israel-Iran conflict,&#8221; \u200csaid \u2060Wichard Cilliers, head of market risk at TreasuryONE.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">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 \u200bstart of the \u200bUS and Israeli war \u2060on Iran at the end of February.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">This week, SA focused investors will assess gross domestic product \u200bfigures on Tuesday and current account mining and \u200bmanufacturing on Thursday for cues on the health of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was \u2060down 0.6% \u200bin early trade.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 \u200bgovernment bond was also weaker in early deals, as the yield rose 13 \u200bbasis points to 8.85%.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/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-36472","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 Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36472","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\/36472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36473,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36472\/revisions\/36473"}],"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=36472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}