Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
A surge in US hiring renewed concerns about aggressive interest rate hikes, boosting the dollar.
The rand plunged from R17.06/$ on Friday morning to R17.48 overnight.
Meanwhile, disappointing earnings reports from Apple, Amazon and Google owner Alphabet have raised concerns that high interest rates and skyrocketing inflation are weighing on consumer demand.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which rose more than 3 percent on Thursday on beating results from Facebook parent Meta, fell 2 percent at the open on Friday.
But the Nasdaq wiped out that loss in morning trading before falling again.
Amazon shares, which plunged 5.6 percent at the start of trading, were down 4.4 percent by late morning. Alphabet shares recouped most of their losses, slipping 1 percent.
Apple, which opened slightly lower, rallied and rose more than 3 percent.
Data showing that after a five-month slowdown in hiring, the world’s largest economy added 517,000 jobs in January, may have dampened hopes that the US Federal Reserve will.
“The key takeaway from the report is that it makes the market question its own conviction about the prospect of a Fed cut before the end of the year,” market analyst Patrick O’Hare told Briefing.com.
The dollar jumped higher after the data was released, and the yield on US government bonds rose higher.
But recent jobs and other data also helped ease concerns about a recession.
In Europe, London’s prime FTSE 100 index soared to a record high above 7,906 on Friday, buoyed by sterling weakness and record annual earnings from oil company Shell.
“A sense of optimism has emerged in markets on Friday, pushing the FTSE 100 to an all-time high after US job growth rallied and investors shrugged off recession concerns,” Susannah Streeter said. , analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Frankfurt shares ended the day lower, but Paris ended with a profit.
In Asia, shares of the Indian conglomerate Adani fell further.
Beleaguered Indian tycoon Gautam Adani denied on Friday that his rise to become Asia’s richest man, a title he has lost in a phenomenal stock plunge this week, was thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The combined market capitalization in Adani’s publicly traded units has tumbled by about $120 billion, or half its previous value, since American short seller Hindenburg Research, which makes its money betting on the dip. of stocks, released an explosive report last week.
He accused Adani of accounting fraud and artificially increasing his share prices, calling it a “blatant stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme” and “the biggest scam in corporate history.”
Critics say Adani’s close relationship with Modi, who is also from the state of Gujarat, has helped him win business and avoid proper supervision.
Adani on Friday called the allegations “baseless.”
The JSE All-Share Index rose half a percentage point, with AECI up 6% and Bidvest up more than 3%.
Elsewhere, crude prices stabilized but then added to Thursday’s losses on worries about the economic outlook and demand for data showing US inventories rose more than expected last week.
“Oil is in a bit of limbo as the market awaits tangible signs of a recovery in Chinese oil demand,” said Vandana Hari of Vanda Insights.
