Market Brief: the Santa rally hits Southern Africa and Wall Street

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.

The day ahead

In terms of the day ahead, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The calendar is light with attention mostly focussed on the German IFO data out this morning and US housing starts this afternoon.

Thought of the day

No judgement, but are you feeling a little hungover today? Strong on a Monday night, I agree, but its Christmas! If the answer is yes, as you walk into work in pain and regret, then you're really not alone. This weekend, the last one before the UK disperses for Christmas, is a notoriously boozy one, as revellers get into the festive spirit. Now, the morning after all that festive spirit, you're probably planning how to tackle your hangover - perhaps you're even reaching for paracetamol right now? A new hangover cure has been revealed and it just a small tweak to what most people probably do already. Drinking grapefruit juice is the best way to speed up your recovery – after taking an Ibuprofen. The Grapefruit chaser limits the activity of the enzyme that breaks down drugs, giving the Ibuprofen more of a chance to get to work and do its healing thing. There you go…thank me later! With 4 working days left until the Christmas break, you will be forgiven for thinking the market is hungover and that there is no movement! However, as Cyril Ramaphosa won the ANC Presidency in South Africa, we saw a 7% gain for the Rand from Friday’s opening to yesterday’s close. If you have ZAR exposure and would you like to discuss ways of hedging this risk please contact your Investec Dealer on 0800 055 6339.