United States shock gives huge boost to the rand

• The rand strengthened late on Friday (7 August) following shock jobs data from the United States, which softened the dollar and boosted gold.
• The US economy shed 23,000 jobs in July, a shock reversal from the roughly 80,000 to 95,000 gain economists had forecast, and the US unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.
• The US Federal Reserve is now unlikely to raise interest rates, and the rand's strength may be short-lived if South Africa's jobs data, due next week, shows a deterioration in the unemployment rate.