{"id":115658,"date":"2016-03-07T08:30:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=115658"},"modified":"2016-03-07T08:30:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:30:06","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-before-trading-opens-today-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/115658\/5-things-you-need-to-know-before-trading-opens-today-7\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you need to know before trading opens today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in the markets:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/economy\/2016\/03\/07\/vat-rate-increase-still-on-the-cards\" target=\"_blank\">While the VAT rate was left as is during finance minister Pravin Gordhan&#8217;s budget speech last month, a hike in the tax is still on the cards<\/a><\/strong>. Analysts note that the minister left a VAT hike open, and may pull that card when funding is needed for a larger project, such as the National Healthcare plan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/national\/2016\/03\/07\/rogue-units-project-takes-centre-stage\" target=\"_blank\">The stand-off between Gordhan and SARS continues<\/a><\/strong>, as the Hawks <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/national\/politics\/2016\/03\/07\/political-week-ahead-sars-imbroglio-and-voter-registration-dominate\" target=\"_blank\">await the minister&#8217;s response to 27 questions they sent him<\/a><\/strong>. Weekend reports pointed to the saga polarising members of the ANC, with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/115596\/zuma-holds-allies-close-as-anc-support-wavers-report\/\" target=\"_blank\">members falling either behind Gordhan, or President Jacob Zuma<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; who along with police minister Nathi Nhleko &#8211; support the Hawks&#8217; investigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand rose to its highest in more than a week against the US\u00a0dollar on Friday, shrugging off a jump in US employment, while stocks climbed to a new three-month high, spurred by a global commodities rally, particularly in metals. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR\" target=\"_blank\">On Monday the rand was trading at R15.37 to the dollar, R21.83 to the pound and R16.90 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In global markets,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N16F08K?sp=true\" target=\"_blank\">Asian shares hit two-month highs on Monday, extending sharp gains from last week, following upbeat US jobs data<\/a><\/strong> and a rebound in oil and commodity prices.\u00a0Wall Street ended higher on Friday after employment data allayed investors&#8217; concerns about a sluggish economy without bolstering fears of an imminent interest rate hike.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0W9045\" target=\"_blank\">Oil prices climbed on Monday\u00a0as tightening supply and an improving global outlook strengthened the sentiment for a market recovery<\/a><\/strong>. Brent crude was up to\u00a0$39.49 per barrel, while US crude was\u00a0trading at $36.63 a barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In other news<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business\/news\/toll-collection-firm-shakes-up-executives-1994136\" target=\"_blank\">E-toll collection company, ETC, has had a management shakeup<\/a><\/strong>, with CEO\u00a0Jamie Surkont stepping down and being succeeded by\u00a0Skhumbuzo Macozoma. ETC in February threatened Gauteng motorists with legal action for not paying e-tolls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting the South African market today (7 March 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":52419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26,175],"class_list":["post-115658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-jse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115662,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115658\/revisions\/115662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}