Credit upgrade on the cards for South Africa, and Microsoft to cut 60,000 jobs
The rand was trading at R16.63 against the US dollar on the morning of Tuesday, 27 October 2026, weakening slightly from the day before.
Despite the weakening rand, South African indices advanced on improved fiscal sentiment, with the JSE All Share Index up 1.03% and the Top 40 Index up 0.99%.
Credit ratings agency Moody’s welcomed the medium-term budget policy as credit positive, but kept South Africa’s rating unchanged at Ba2.
Upward tax revenue revisions supported a reduced deficit target of 3.9% of GDP, but interest costs continue to constrain debt affordability.
On Wall Street, shares rebounded on the back of renewed interest in AI. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.70% and 0.82%, respectively, after two weeks of consecutive declines.
Investor attention has turned to Wednesday’s Federal Reserve announcement, as well as upcoming economic growth and inflation releases, and the 3 November midterm elections.
In Europe, equities recovered amidst corporate earnings optimism, with the STOXX 600 finishing 0.77% higher on Monday.
Investors await the European Central Bank’s Thursday meeting, with widespread expectations that rates will remain unchanged after two hikes in June and September.
Asian markets posted mixed results. The Hang Seng rose 0.51% as China’s industrial profits grew 14.4% annually in September.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.19%, while the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.80%. Anthropic’s IPO has supported investor appetite for technology shares.
In commodities, oil remained around $114 per barrel as diplomatic efforts ramp up in Tehran. Meanwhile, gold traded at $4,012.02 per ounce.
On Tuesday morning, the rand was trading at R16.63 to the US dollar, R18.57 to the euro, and R22.15 to the British pound.
Important finance and investing news
Microsoft looks to cut 60,000 jobs: Microsoft has announced a voluntary employee buyout programme, saying around 60,000 of its employees will be eligible for the voluntary exit offer across countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India. [Wall Street Journal]
Credit upgrade on the cards for South Africa: Credit ratings agency Moody’s could upgrade South Africa’s credit rating within a year. This comes after the agency labelled the country’s medium-term budget policy statement as credit positive ahead of its next review on 27 November. Moody’s revised its outlook on South Africa to positive in May. [BusinessDay]
SpaceX secures $40 billion deal: SpaceX has locked in a $40 billion deal to finance AI chips and related data centre equipment. Under the agreement, an entity managed by private equity giant Apollo Global Management will purchase the chips and related server hardware, which it will lease to SpaceX. [Yahoo Finance]
Meta to issue $95 billion of shares: Meta is issuing new stock for the first time since 2013, announcing a $95 billion offering to fund its AI endeavours. $60 billion of this will come in the form of new, nonvoting shares that the company created last week. This tops the $25 billion and $85 billion stock offerings made last year by Oracle and Google, respectively. [Semafor]
Western Cape to kiss R1 billion goodbye: Agri Western Cape has warned that proposed water restrictions could cost the economy more than R1 billion. The Department of Water and Sanitation is currently determining whether water restrictions in the province will be necessary. [EWN]
