{"id":117148,"date":"2016-03-17T08:25:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T06:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=117148"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:25:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T06:25:53","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-before-trading-opens-today-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/117148\/5-things-you-need-to-know-before-trading-opens-today-13\/","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>President Jacob Zuma will take the hot seat in Parliament on Thursday in a question and answer session with MPs<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/zuma-takes-the-hot-seat-in-parliament-20160316\" target=\"_blank\"> amid explosive revelations that the Gupta family had been trying to influence Cabinet appointments<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0Zuma is expected in the National Assembly Chamber at 14:00. Deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas revealed on Wednesday that the Gupta family had offered him the position of Finance Minister &#8211; with conditions attached.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Moments before Jonas&#8217;\u00a0revelation, the deputy minister reportedly <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/national\/2016\/03\/17\/jonas-threatened-before-revelation\" target=\"_blank\">received a text message telling to &#8220;leave martyrdom to Christ&#8221;, which is believed to have been a threat<\/a><\/strong> for him to keep quiet about his meeting with the Guptas.\u00a0Following Jonas&#8217; revelations, there has been public outcry, as well as backlash from other politicians.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand gained strongly late on Wednesday following Jonas&#8217; revelations, though a dovish statement form the United States central bank that suggested it would not raise interest rates anytime soon was also factored in.<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR\" target=\"_blank\">The rand is currently trading at R15.71 to the US dollar, R22.37 to the pound and R17.63 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In global news,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N16P0D1?sp=true\" target=\"_blank\">Asian shares gained across the board on Thursday and the dollar was on the defensive after suffering substantial losses <\/a><\/strong>as risk appetite revived after the U.S. Federal Reserve reduced the number of interest rate hikes expected this year. On Wall Street,\u00a0the S&amp;P 500 closed at its highest level of the year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Oil futures extended strong gains on Thursday, <strong>c<a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N16P0BZ\" target=\"_blank\">ontinuing to gather support after the world&#8217;s biggest suppliers firmed up plans to meet to discuss an output freeze<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0U.S. crude settled\u00a0at $38.46 a barrel on Wednesday, with\u00a0Brent crude rising\u00a0to $40.33 a barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In other news<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sport24.co.za\/Soccer\/South-Africa\/sports-minister-fikile-mbalula-to-open-up-on-safa-suspensions-20160317\" target=\"_blank\">Sports minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to\u00a0brief the media on Thursday on FIFA&#8217;s\u00a0allegations of match-fixing<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and the suspension of SA Football Association officials. Previously, Mbalula vehemently denied any wrongdoing on South Africa&#8217;s part when it came to light that $10 million was paid in bribes to secure the 2010 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is what&#8217;s happening in and affecting the South African market today (17 March)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":110385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,11121,23],"tags":[26,175],"class_list":["post-117148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline","tag-jse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117148","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=117148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117162,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117148\/revisions\/117162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}