Good morning, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the wires… | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Quote of the day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” ― Maya Angelou | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The indicators | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Currency crackdown… | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The rand had another strong session yesterday, briefly pushing through the psychological R16.00/$ mark and touching around R15.97, before giving back a little ground overnight. This was to be expected, as I am sure there were many orders in and around R16. The broader dollar recovery has fairly limited though — the euro is still holding around $1.165–$1.167 and sterling around $1.363, both close to their recent highs. After a data-dense week last week, there is less excitement expected over the next few days. The big story overnight was once again Trump and Iran. Trump posted that “Iran is completely collapsing” as his administration rolled out its latest economic offensive against Tehran. The US sanctioned nearly 60 Iran-linked entities (Not us) and, more importantly for markets, warned other countries that continuing to do business with Iran could ultimately see them cut off from the dollar-based financial system. Iran has responded aggressively, warning that countries supporting the US measures could be treated as hostile and continuing to threaten disruption to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Interestingly, the escalation hasn’t caused a huge rush into the dollar just yet. It gave the greenback a bit of a safe-haven lift overnight, but markets seem to be interpreting the shift towards economic pressure rather than fresh military escalation as not immediately threatening. Oil actually moved lower yesterday, while the dollar has struggled to hold onto its gains. For the rand, that leaves us in a pretty good spot for now — R16.00 remains the big “standard” to maintain, but any fresh Trump/Iran headlines could very quickly bring some volatility back into the market. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the radar… | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Did you know? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nike was originally called “Blue Ribbon Sports” before being rebranded.
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All the best,
Kyle Moulster
