Pressure on the JSE is likely to continue on Tuesday, as local mines and businesses shut down due to electricity cuts, while the threat of the US-China trade war takes the edge off of investor appetite.

Eskom implemented stage 6 load-shedding on Monday for the first time. This is likely to deal further economic damage to SA’s struggling economy.

Globally, a series of risk events loom, including the US Federal Reserve policy announcement on Tuesday, and British elections on Thursday.

The US is due to implement new tariffs on China on Sunday, and markets are anxiously waiting to see if these will be delayed or scrapped, given recent hopes the two sides are close to a partial trade deal.

Investors have been getting out of risk positions, and are showing little appetite to add to new equity positions before Christmas, said AxiTrader chief Asian markets analyst Stephen Innes in a note.

“Overall, however, it still feels like the positive momentum remains intact and that the equity markets could move higher. Of course, that’s if we can clear Brexit and US-China risk,” said Innes.

In morning trade on Tuesday Asian markets were mixed, with Shanghai’s Composite down 0.2% while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.33%.

Gold was flat at $1,460.40/oz while platinum had risen 0.42% to $898.03. Brent crude was 0.12% higher at $64.14 a barrel.

The rand was little changed at R14.665/$.

There is little on the local corporate calendar on Tuesday.

Stats SA is expected to release manufacturing production for October on Tuesday. The median forecast is for a contraction of 2.6% from one of 2.4% in September, according to a Bloomberg poll.

gernetzkyk@businesslive.co.za