{"id":49271,"date":"2026-10-28T11:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49271"},"modified":"2026-10-28T11:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:51:18","slug":"rand-softens-as-oil-prices-rise","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-softens-as-oil-prices-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand softens as oil prices rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand was under pressure in early trade on Wednesday as higher oil \u200bprices fuelled inflation concerns, while investors awaited the United States (US) \u200cFederal Reserve&#8217;s policy decision later in the day for clues on the interest rate outlook.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand \u200btraded at 16.68 against the Dollar, down 0.2% \u200bfrom its previous close<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Oil prices rose more than 1% \u2060on Wednesday after an attack on a refinery \u200bin Saudi Arabia renewed concerns around supply risks from \u200bthe major exporter.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Markets are awaiting the Federal&#8217;s policy decision, as well as Personal Consumption Expenditures data, a key \u200binflation gauge closely watched by the central bank, \u200bon Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Traders largely expect the Fed to leave rates unchanged on \u200cWednesday \u2060but are pricing in an 84% chance of a December rate hike, according to the CME&#8217;s FedWatch Tool.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Analytics said the Rand could weaken beyond the \u200b$17.00 level if \u200brising oil \u2060prices and Fed-related pressures persist.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the absence of major domestic data, the rand, \u200blike other emerging market currencies, tends to \u200btake direction \u2060from global factors, including US economic releases and geopolitical developments.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was \u2060down \u200babout 0.2% in early trade.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>S\u200bA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond weakened in early deals, with the yield \u200brising 2 basis points to 8.6%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-49271","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand was under pressure in early trade on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49271","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49273,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49271\/revisions\/49273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}