{"id":43251,"date":"2026-08-20T11:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43251"},"modified":"2026-08-20T11:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:40:21","slug":"rand-flat-as-investors-mull-us-treasury-moves","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-flat-as-investors-mull-us-treasury-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand flat as investors mull US Treasury moves"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The South African (SA) Rand was flat in early trade on Thursday, as global \u200binvestors avoided taking large positions while digesting \u200ca surprise United States (US) Treasury announcement aimed at supporting the bond market.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Rand traded at 16.09 \u200bagainst the Dollar, unchanged from its previous \u200bclose.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Umkhulu Treasury&#8217;s Adam Phillips said he expected the \u2060currency to remain rangebound for the rest \u200bof the week. &#8220;If it can close below 16.1470 \u200bon Friday, then it might push stronger,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often takes its cues from \u200bglobal developments when there is little domestic economic \u200bdata on the calendar.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The US Dollar weakened against a basket \u200cof \u2060currencies after the US Treasury Department said it would double buyback operations for longer-dated government bonds to support market liquidity.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The announcement came after a major bond \u200bselloff as \u200binvestors demanded \u2060higher returns on the back of increased inflationary risks stemming from the US and Israeli \u200bwar on Iran.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">ETM Analytics said the \u200bmove had \u2060improved global risk appetite and boosted demand for higher-yielding assets, including SA bonds.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s benchmark \u20602035 \u200bgovernment bond was steady in \u200bearly deals, as the yield fell half a basis point to \u200b8.465%.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-43251","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was flat in early trade on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43251","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\/43251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43253,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43251\/revisions\/43253"}],"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=43251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}