Johannesburg — South Africa’s rand hovered near a nine-month low early on Monday against a buoyant dollar, amid an uncertain outlook for further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
At 0721 GMT, the rand traded at 19.1525 against the dollar, about 0.3% softer than its previous close. It hit 19.2050 per dollar on Friday, its weakest level since late April.
The dollar was last trading about 0.21% stronger against a basket of currencies, after surging to its highest in over two years at the expense of emerging market currencies such as the rand.
Data on Friday showed U.S. job growth unexpectedly accelerated in December while the unemployment rate fell, underscoring the strength of the world’s largest economy and leaving traders heavily scaling back bets of Fed rate cuts in 2025.
On the stock market, the Top-40 index was down about 1%.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield up 5.5 basis points to 9.32%.
*Bhargav Acharya; editing: Alison Williams – Reuters
