VW cutting 100,000 jobs, and platinum miners’ R44.5 billion gift to investors

The rand was trading at R15.98 against the United States dollar on the morning of Friday, 4 September 2026, back under the R16/USD mark.

JSE equities saw a rebound on Thursday, with the All Share Index up 1.40% and the Top 40 Index gaining 1.44%.

This positive sentiment coincided with a slight improvement in domestic economic data, with the S&P Global South Africa PMI rising to 50.5 in August.

However, monetary policy continues to face external inflationary risks, with rising oil prices and drought concerns raising expectations of another 25-basis-point rate hike.

On Wall Street, US equities surged with the Nasdaq rising 1.40%, the Dow Jones gaining 1.18%, and the S&P 500 up 1.06%.

Sentiment lifted as investors scaled back Federal rate hike expectations to 50.4%, down from 63.2%, amid signs of easing US inflation.

In Europe, Germany’s Ifo Institute raised its 2026 GDP forecast to 1.4%, up from 0.8%, citing stronger fiscal spending and exports.

Meanwhile in Asia, household spending in Japan fell 3.6% year-on-year in July, worse than the 1.6% forecast and its eighth straight month in contractionary territory.

In the commodities market, oil remained above $95 per barrel, moving towards its biggest weekly gain since mid-July amid escalating US-Iran tensions.

Gold remained relatively steady, down 0.11% to $4,467.48 per ounce, while PGMs also saw slight drops, with platinum down 0.99% to $1,809 per ounce.

On Friday morning, the rand was trading at R15.98 against the US dollar, R18.58 against the euro, and R21.62 against the British pound.

Important finance and investing news

VW cutting 100,000 jobs: The Board of German automotive giant Volkswagen has approved doubling its job cuts to 100,000 and halving its model portfolio as the company undergoes a major restructuring amid US tariffs and intensifying competition from Chinese carmakers. [Wall Street Journal]

Platinum miner’s R44.5 billion gift for investors: Higher platinum metal group prices have lifted earnings across the sector, pushing shareholder returns at Impala Platinum to R44.5 billion during its financial year ending June. [BusinessDay]

China bets big on sports: The Chinese government has announced plans to spend at least $1 trillion to turn the country into a sporting powerhouse. Beijing hopes to root out corruption and stimulate domestic consumption by hosting more outdoor sports events. [Semafor]

Win for South Africa with a catch: United States President Donald Trump has signed a two-year extension to the African Growth and Opportunity Act to 2028. While this grants the country two more years of duty-free access to US markets, it falls far short of the 15-year extension the country hoped for. [BusinessDay]

Anthropic clearing a $15 billion hurdle: AI company Anthropic is set to finalise its revolving credit facility to $15 billion as the Claude chatbot maker moves closer to publicly filing its highly anticipated IPO, seeking to raise as much or even more than SpaceX earlier this year. [Yahoo Finance]