
Market Brief: the Santa rally hits Southern Africa and Wall Street
11 Sep 2018
Just 6 days until Christmas and Santa’s pre-Christmas soiree in Southern Africa seems to continue. Not long ago, Zimbabwean President Robert ‘Bob’ Mugabe lost power after nearly 4 decades in charge.
Today's data release |
Key levels | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
09:00 | EU German IFO | Support | Resistance | |
10:00 | EU construction output | GBP/USD | 1.3027 | 1.3549 |
13:30 | US housing starts | GBP/EUR | 1.1065 |
1.1560 |
Market overview
Good morning everyone, just 6 days until Christmas and Santa’s pre-Christmas soiree in Southern Africa seems to continue. Not long ago, Zimbabwean President Robert ‘Bob’ Mugabe lost power after nearly 4 decades in charge. Yesterday in South Africa, after a gruelling duel, Cyril Ramaphosa won the ANC election, with next year’s state election looming.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Ramaphosa beat Dlamini-Zuma, the President’s ex-wife, by a slender margin - just 52 percent to 48 percent (same margin as Brexit, I might add) and is not president yet. He will need to tread very carefully, as the ANC is deeply divided and the task ahead of him is a mammoth one, especially with Zuma’s allies positioned all around him.
Needless to say, the Rand had an excellent day and is now trading around the GBPZAR 17.00 handle with USDZAR reaching a nine month high yesterday.
In other news, the Santa Rally has also hit Wall Street as US stocks reached historic highs as America moves closer towards Trump tax reforms, which could see corporate rates slashed from 35% to 21%. Yesterday, the Dow closed up 0.6%, the S&P up 0.5% and the tech heavy Nasdaq up 0.8% yesterday, with global stocks largely following suit.
Turning our attention to matters Brexit, Michel Barnier, the European Union Chief Negotiator has started to play hard ball again. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he ruled out a special carve-out for the UK financial services industry and specifically warned Britain that it will need to abide by the rules drawn up by the EU during a transition period after leaving the bloc.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Ramaphosa beat Dlamini-Zuma, the President’s ex-wife, by a slender margin - just 52 percent to 48 percent (same margin as Brexit, I might add) and is not president yet. He will need to tread very carefully, as the ANC is deeply divided and the task ahead of him is a mammoth one, especially with Zuma’s allies positioned all around him.
Needless to say, the Rand had an excellent day and is now trading around the GBPZAR 17.00 handle with USDZAR reaching a nine month high yesterday.
In other news, the Santa Rally has also hit Wall Street as US stocks reached historic highs as America moves closer towards Trump tax reforms, which could see corporate rates slashed from 35% to 21%. Yesterday, the Dow closed up 0.6%, the S&P up 0.5% and the tech heavy Nasdaq up 0.8% yesterday, with global stocks largely following suit.
Turning our attention to matters Brexit, Michel Barnier, the European Union Chief Negotiator has started to play hard ball again. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he ruled out a special carve-out for the UK financial services industry and specifically warned Britain that it will need to abide by the rules drawn up by the EU during a transition period after leaving the bloc.