Rand firmer amid growing hope US-China trade war can be resolved

The rand was firmer on Thursday morning, boosted by reports that the US and China had agreed to a truce in their trade war ahead of a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the weekend.

Reports on Thursday suggested that the US and China had already agreed to a truce in the war, and that this had been a condition for Trump and Xi’s meeting at the weekend.

The meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan is being closely watched, amid market speculation around how the US-China trade war will unfold in the short term, either moving towards resolution or escalating.

Optimism is now building ahead of the talks, said Vanguard Markets managing partner Stephen Innes in a note, although most had already believed issues would be hammered out ahead of the meeting, which would be more “pomp and ceremony”.

At 9.45am the rand was 0.4% at R14.1696/$, 0.39% firmer at R16.1106/€ and 0.3% stronger at R17.9912/£. The euro was little changed at $1.137.