{"id":41792,"date":"2026-08-07T11:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T09:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41792"},"modified":"2026-08-07T11:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T09:59:08","slug":"rand-edges-up-as-firm-gold-supports-ahead-of-us-jobs-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-edges-up-as-firm-gold-supports-ahead-of-us-jobs-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand edges up as firm gold supports ahead of US jobs data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand edged up in early trade on Friday, with strong gold prices underpinning the currency as investors \u200bawaited United States (US) non-farm payrolls data later in the day \u200cfor fresh clues on the Federal Reserve&#8217;s interest-rate path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Rand was trading at 16.34 against the Dollar, up about 0.2% from its \u200bprevious close.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Gold, a key SA export, firmed and \u200bwas on track for its biggest weekly gain since \u2060January, helped by weaker oil prices as hopes of peace in \u200bthe Middle East saw inflation expectations drop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The US Dollar was little \u200bchanged against a basket of currencies as traders awaited US non-farm payrolls data due, with economists in a poll expecting 80 000 jobs \u200bto have been added and the unemployment rate to hold \u200bsteady at 4.2%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;With today&#8217;s payrolls report and the long weekend ahead, traders are \u200cexpected \u2060to remain cautious, with many preferring to maintain long US Dollar positions until there is greater clarity on the Fed&#8217;s policy outlook,&#8221; said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On the domestic front, S\u200bA&#8217;s net foreign reserves \u200brose to $71.76 \u2060billion at the end of July from $71.34 billion in June, Central bank data showed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Next week, SA focused \u200binvestors will turn to manufacturing and second-quarter employment \u200bfigures \u2060on Tuesday and mining on Thursday, for clues on the health of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 \u2060index was up 0.7% in early trade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SA&#8217;s \u200bbenchmark 2035 government bond was weaker in early deals, with the yield up 4 \u200bbasis points to 8.43%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34578,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-41792","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand edged up in early trade on Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41792","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\/41792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41795,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41792\/revisions\/41795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}