The JSE closed in positive territory on Tuesday after a volatile trading day that saw the local bourse give up most of its gains, weighed by the resources sector. It closed up 0.3% to 66 966.73.
Chief investment officer at Makwe Fund Managers, Makwe Masilela, said: “We saw stocks bouncing back, but fears over lower economic growth were still weighing on market sentiment, and this shows that [Tuesday’s] recovery was more of a dead cat bounce.”
US stocks saw choppy gains and futures were up on Tuesday after a huge sell-off on Monday on the back of fears of a global recession as central banks are in a hiking cycle to curb rising inflation.
READ: Rand has been valiant against rising global inflation, but interest rate hikes imminent
US stocks ended mixed on Tuesday after a rally in technology companies helped reverse most of the recent day’s slide.
The Nasdaq was up 1% to 11 737.67.
The S&P 500 breached the 4 000 level – it rose 0.2% to 4 001.05 after giving up most of an early gain of 1.9%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3% to 32 160.74, which comes as investors await the US CPI print on Wednesday. This will give guidance on how aggressively the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said he was considering eliminating Trump-era tariffs on China as a way to lower prices for goods in the US.
On Tuesday, European markets rebounded from the wide sell-off in recent days, brought on by concerns over inflation and rising interest rates, as well as the potential of a global recession.
The FTSE 100 was flat at 0.37% to 7 243.22, the DAX was up 1.15% to 13 534.74 and the CAC40 was up half a percent to 6 116.91.
READ: Rand goes from dizzy heights to year lows as sentiment sours
Meanwhile, China’s consumer price inflation came in higher than the median 1.8%, at 2.1%.
China and Hong Kong’s stocks rallied after a drop in Covid-19 cases boosted sentiment and activated dip-buying.
The rand had a volatile session on Tuesday, strengthening almost 1% and then retreating towards the end of trade. It was trading at R16.08 against the dollar on Wednesday morning, R19.84 against the pound and R16.96 against the euro.
The expectation that the Fed will continue to hike rates at an aggressive rate has seen the dollar strengthen against major currencies, as it is seen as a safe haven in these uncertain times.
Masilela said:
The spot price of Brent crude oil is R104.93 per barrel, the gold price was down nearly 1% at R1 838.72, platinum was up 1.85% at R956.15 and silver was down 0.65% at R21.50.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
