{"id":40878,"date":"2026-07-28T12:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40878"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:24:08","slug":"rand-muted-as-firmer-dollar-weighs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-muted-as-firmer-dollar-weighs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand muted as firmer Dollar weighs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand was subdued on Tuesday as a firmer Dollar kept the risk-sensitive currency under \u200bpressure ahead of the United States (US) Federal Reserve&#8217;s policy decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Rand traded at 16.7875 against the Dollar, down about 0.2% from its previous close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The greenback gained against a basket of \u200bcurrencies as investors awaited the conclusion of the Fed&#8217;s \u200btwo-day policy meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Expectations that the Fed will \u2060hold interest rates steady stand at 62%, while 38% \u200bof market participants expect at least a 25-basis-point rate hike, according \u200bto CME FedWatch, up from 16% a week earlier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;The rand is on the defensive, trading near peaks last seen in early May, which underscores \u200bits vulnerability,&#8221; ETM Analytics said in a note.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The research firm \u200bsaid the currency&#8217;s subdued reaction to lower oil prices was a concern, \u200cnoting \u2060that the rand had recently tracked movements in crude markets more closely. &#8220;Since the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) left rates unchanged, the rand has lost some of this correlation and now \u200bappears more vulnerable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">S\u200bARB surprised \u2060investors and economists by keeping its main lending rate unchanged last week, saying its policy \u200bwas restrictive enough to return inflation to its \u200btarget \u2060within two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On the domestic front, data released on Tuesday showed SA&#8217;s composite leading business cycle indicator fell 0.3% month-on-month in \u2060May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On \u200bthe Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 \u200bindex was flat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond strengthened, with the yield falling \u200b7.5 basis points to 8.515%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-40878","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was subdued on Tuesday as a firmer Dollar","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40878","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\/40878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40879,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40878\/revisions\/40879"}],"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=40878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}