Market Commentary | The week that was

South Africa will have to brace itself for another week of brutal power cuts, as the country enters a second week of elevated load-shedding levels. On Tuesday last week Eskom implemented stage 6 load-shedding for the first time since 2019. The struggling power utility had to implement these extreme measures due to wildcat strikes, which prevented up to 90% of staff going to work at some plants.

On a global front, China has imposed fresh Covid-19 lockdown regulations as the country is experiencing a new outbreak of the pandemic in some smaller eastern cities. Up until now, the Chinese government has had a zero-tolerance to Covid-19, which is still firmly intact. Global sentiment has weakened because of this news, as renewed recession fears start to rise.

Looking at the week ahead: US non-farm payrolls and average hourly earnings will give an indication of the state of their economy, while key PMI figures in China, India and the European countries should give an indication of the strength of their economic activity.