{"id":4339,"date":"2026-09-02T01:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2026-09-02T01:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:21:06","slug":"simeka-markets-at-a-glance-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/2026\/09\/02\/simeka-markets-at-a-glance-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Simeka: Markets at a Glance – August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

G<\/strong>lobal:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
    \n
  • US CPI slowed for a second month from 3.5% to 3.4%, as the impact of the energy price shock caused by the Middle East conflict continued to ease.<\/li>\n
  • Despite this improvement, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh\u2019s Jackson Hole address reignited interest rate-hike expectations, as he reminded investors that inflation remains well above the 2% target, keeping a potential rate hike on the table.<\/li>\n
  • US debt passed the $40 trillion mark, fuelling volatility in global bond markets and renewed concerns over the US dollar\u2019s safe-haven status.<\/li>\n
  • Against this backdrop of a growing debt burden, investors rotated out of the US dollar and into gold, which rose over 12% during the month to near the $4,500 an ounce mark.<\/li>\n
  • Middle East ceasefire talks continued through the month, though with no clear resolution in sight, and oil ended at $90 a barrel, a rise of 2.9% over the month.<\/li>\n
  • Despite this volatility, market sentiment was \u201crisk-on\u201d with earnings remaining robust: the MSCI World and S&P 500 both rose 2.6%, with the S&P 500 reaching a mid-month all-time high, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index outperformed with a 3.2% return (all in USD), supported by a weaker dollar and continued AI and tech demand in Asia. Over the past 12 months, the MSCI World Index has returned 20.8% and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index 36.6% (both in USD), with emerging markets remaining comfortably ahead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Local (South Africa):<\/strong><\/h4>\n
      \n
    • Gold\u2019s rally was felt close to home too, lifting local equity markets alongside the improving inflation backdrop.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Inflation cooled for the first time in five months, easing from 5.0% to 4.3%, driven mainly by softer food and non-alcoholic beverage prices, smaller municipal tariff increases, and lower fuel prices.<\/li>\n
    • This likely strengthens the case for the Reserve Bank to hold interest rates at 7% at its September meeting while it assesses the potential fallout from the Middle East conflict.<\/li>\n
    • While inflation improved, the unemployment rate rose to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, up from 32.7% – the highest level since 2022.<\/li>\n
    • SA equities, measured by the FTSE\/JSE ALSI, rose 4.6%, boosted by the resources sector, which climbed 26.4% – with gold counters leading the charge, as AngloGold Ashanti alone rose over 40%, while laggards included Naspers, which fell 9%. The FTSE\/JSE ALBI delivered a steady 0.7%, while property lagged with a return of -3.8%. On a 12-month basis, the FTSE\/JSE ALSI returned 18.4%, well ahead of the MSCI World\u2019s 10.2% in rand terms.<\/li>\n
    • The rand strengthened meaningfully by 2.7% against the US dollar, moving from R16.56 to R16.12, briefly dipping below the critical R16.00 level intra-month, as dollar weakness combined with the softer local inflation print to support the currency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This publication provides a monthly review of major indexes, important macroeconomic indicators and an overview of the highs and lows of the stock market for the period.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11016,"featured_media":4341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82009,3256],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-carousel","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11016"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4349,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/4349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surf.sun.ac.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}