The JSE was slightly firmer on Friday morning, with its global peers mixed as a rally driven by strong earnings results in Nvidia ran out of steam.
Stock markets rallied on Thursday after Nvidia’s results rekindled faith that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence would boost profits and give stock prices further room to run. At the same time, Nvidia’s shares added about $277bn in market capitalisation on Thursday, surpassing the $197bn gain made by Facebook-parent Meta at the start of February, Bloomberg reported.
The inflation outlook still remains the main theme for the markets, with investors now betting that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates in June, rather than March, after recent data pointed to a strong economy.
The personal consumption and expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, will give market participants more clarity about inflation and the outlook for interest rates.
“US data remains strong and points to the resilience of the US economy. Fed officials are continuing with the mantra that interest rates need to remain elevated for longer as the central bank looks for price stability,” said RMB head of forex execution Matete Thulare.
At 10.20am, the JSE all share had gained 0.37% to 74,386.84 points and the top 40 was up 0.43%. Industrial metals had risen 2.33%, resources 1.2%, SA listed property 0.58%, industrials 0.41% and food producers 0.38%. Precious metals had lost 0.34%, banks 0.29% and financials 0.29%.
At the same time in Europe, France’s CAC 40 had risen 0.16%, while Germany’s DAX was little changed.
Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.55% and Japan’s Nikkei 2.19%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was unchanged.
At 10.19am, the rand had weakened 0.25% to R19.2099/$, 0.35% to R20.81/€ and 0.52% to R24.3485/£. The euro was little changed at $1.0829.
Gold lost 0.15% to $2,021.08/oz, while platinum gained 0.4% to $900.13/oz. Brent crude was 0.66% firmer at $83.16 a barrel.
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