International
The U.S dollar index lost momentum on Wednesday, giving back all its previous day’s gains, with anticipation of the Fed’s monetary policy meetings, as well as monetary policy decisions from other global central banks, driving sentiment on the day. The dollar index ended the session at 93.802 before touching a low of 93.693 and reaching a high of 94.007.
The euro strengthened in the session ahead of the ECB’s meeting, although struggled to hold on to its earlier gains, as we the single currency broadly consolidating to end the session flat. Consumer confidence data in France missed market expectation by -2.0, as it printed at 99. Similarly, YoY import price from Germany also missed market expectation by -0.30%, as it printed at 17.7%. The single currency reached a high of $1.1625 and closed at $1.1604.
The pound sterling weakened, and, like the dollar and euro, this is also on the back of expectations of possible rate hikes from the BoE. The pound closed at $1.3746 after hitting a low of $1.3707.
ZAR
An extremely volatile day for the rand. The local unit rapidly lost momentum and took a nosedive, trading on the backfoot once again, as the local power utility company plunged most parts of the country into darkness by implementing stage 4 load shedding. Adversely denting investor sentiment, and also sent the rand reeling to a high of R15.0838/$. With softer commodity prices also weighing on the local unit. The rand ended the session under immense pressure at R15.0775/$.
Investor focus shifts to key data releases from the US and Eurozone, locally we expect our PPI data print, anticipate these data releases, and other global headlines to drive markets.
Expected ranges for the day:
- USDZAR: R 14.9500/$ – R15.1500/$
- EURUSD: $ 1.1550 – 1.1610
- GBPUSD: $ 1.3720 – 1.3780
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