ZAR Forex Report – All over the show

The ZAR traded in a close range last week Tuesday at around 13.30, 14.56 and 17.20 against the USD, EUR and GBP respectively.

While Euro manufacturing data improved slightly, the data for the US and China showed that manufacturing slowed down a little.

Ranges were tight and trade was low due to the mixed bag of results.

Locally, new car sales fell 11.3% year on year and manufacturing data was down as well for the first quarter of 2017.

The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, which increased the odds for a June hike – the USD rallied as a result and saw the Greenback move to 13.44 versus the ZAR. The stronger Dollar and possible Trump tax cuts saw an emerging market sell-off. The Rand was on the receiving end, bursting through resistance levels and weakening to 13.67– the weakest since the infamous cabinet reshuffle.

France voted in a new president in Macron, resulting in a stronger Euro and revived optimism as the emerging markets made a comeback – the ZAR strengthened to 13.46 versus the USD as markets took on risk again.

The reduced risk in global markets, however, saw commodity prices take a hammering as the Rand reversed the gains and weakened to 13.60 on Wednesday.

We expect the Rand to remain range bound this week, but keep an eye out for Chinese inflation data today, followed by SA mining and manufacturing as well as UK manufacturing and interest rates tomorrow. Then on Friday, US inflation and retail figures as well as German 1Q GDP.

In other news, the Springboks have been pooled with the All Blacks in the group stages for Japan 2019

Enjoy the week.

ZAR FOREX RATE

 USDZAR = 13.5322

GBPZAR = 17.5251

EURZAR = 14.7119

AUDZAR = 9.98327

NZDZAR = 9.38218

CADZAR = 9.87183

CHFZAR = 13.4406