USD/ZAR Reverses Losses, Precious Metals Lose Ground

USD/ZAR reversed its earlier losses and last trades at 17.7321, over 1,100 pips higher on the day, mostly due to greenback appreciation as the rand is the third-best performer in EMEA space. The USD turned bid on the back of better than expected advance Q2 GDP data out of the US as well as purchases versus the euro after the announcement of the ECB's monetary policy decision.

• South Africa's PPI inflation eased more than forecast to +4.8% Y/Y in June from +7.3% prior versus the +5.8% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. On a sequential basis, factory-gate prices fell 0.3% M/M versus expectations of a 0.2% increase. The data provides further evidence of the strength of the underlying disinflationary impulse.
• The commodity space softened and the aggregate BBG Commodity Index sits ~0.4% lower on the day, while the precious metals subindex sits ~1.6% amid quite heavy losses for the yellow metal.