ESKOM

SA Electricity Minister, Ramokgopa says the heightened load shedding of Stage 6 this week was being treated as an extraordinary occurrence.

The indications for the rest of the week were showing an outlook of Stage 3 and 4 blackouts.

He said “There will be momentary setbacks, and this is what happened this week. The outlook now for the week is Stage 3, 4 load shedding,” he said.

Ramokgopa was speaking during a media briefing on Sunday at the GCIS head offices in Pretoria.

“We are going to take the necessary measures to resolve load shedding. We are not going to take short-cuts to defeat load shedding,” he said.

It would be short-term pain, but long-term gain as they were not willing to compromise on maintenance programmes in order to keep the lights on.

US stock futures held steady on Monday as investors look ahead to key inflation data this week that could influence the path for US monetary policy.

Last week, the Dow fell 0.75%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.29% and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.93%.

Those losses came as a string of stronger-than-expected US economic data renewed fears that the Federal Reserve could tighten policy further.

Markets are now seeing a nearly 50% chance of a rate increase in November after an anticipated pause in September.

Traders will get a reading of consumer and producer inflation reports on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Retail sales and consumer sentiment data will also be released this week.

Moreover, major technology firms Oracle and Adobe will report earnings on Monday and Thursday, respectively.

Source: Trading Economics

Yields higher in Monday trading with the US10YT at 4.30% and Japanese 10Y JGB’s also surged to 0.7%, hitting its highest levels in nearly a decade.

JGB’s spiked after Bank of Japan Governor, Kazuo Ueda, recently stated that the central bank could end its negative interest rate policy when the 2% inflation target is sustainability achieved.

He added that the BOJ could have enough data by the end of the year to determine whether it can proceed with policy changes.

In the UK, the yield on the UK’s 10-year Gilt remained above 4.5%, staying close to its highest level since August 22, driven by expectations that interest rates would remain elevated for an extended period.

In the UK, Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, informed the UK Parliament that the central bank was nearing the end of its series of interest rate hikes.

But left room for the possibility of further rate increases loomed due to persistent inflationary pressures.

Concurrently, another member of the Bank of England, Swati Dhingra, expressed concerns that interest rates had already reached a level that could potentially harm the economy if raised further.