South Africa’s currency plummeted more than 2 percent on Monday after S&P Global Ratings offered a negative outlook on the country’s credit score and changed the country’s score to sub-investment grade. The move follows the firing of South Africa’s finance minister by South African President Jacob Zuma last week. The rand traded at 13.6800 per dollar on Monday afternoon. Before the firing the rand was seen as the best-performing emerging market currency in 2017. It has fallen 11.5 percent since last Monday. In the event that President Zuma is forced out of office there is a chance that the rand could recover by the end of the year.
Oil Prices Rise on Weaker Dollar
International Brent crude futures rose slightly on Tuesday as the dollar weakened in Asian trading. The commodity traded at $53.19 per barrel, up 7 cents from the previous trading session, while U.S. WTI crude was up 4 cents per barrel to $50.28. The dollar fell 0.2 percent on Tuesday morning, down for a third consecutive session, to 110.655 yen. The dollar index was down 0.1 percent to 100.48 .DXY.
Gold prices hit one-week highs on Tuesday before pulling back to trade at $1,254.51 per ounce, up on the day as investors flocked to the safe haven in advance of U.S. President Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Last week President Trump tweeted that he expects the meeting to be a ‘difficult one’. Concern about the meeting kept global stock markets slightly lower on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.