South African Markets - Factors to watch on Feb. 17

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The following scheduled economic events, company announcements, equity and currency market moves may affect South African markets on Friday. ECONOMIC EVENTS South African inflation-linked bond auction South African Treasury bill auction COMPANIES African e-commerce firm Jumia Technologies said on Thursday that cost savings had helped it reduce fourth quarter losses by 30% from a year earlier, with a further sharp drop expected this year. SOUTH AFRICAN MARKETS South Africa's rand weakened on Thursday after President Cyril Ramaphosa defended his decision to appoint a minister of electricity to try to end crippling power cuts. On the stock market, the Top-40 and the broader all-share indexes closed about 1% higher, mostly helped by gains in the resources index . GLOBAL MARKETS Asian equities slipped on Friday, while the dollar hovered around six-week highs as economic data and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials revived fears that the U.S. central bank will stick to its monetary tightening path. WALL STREET Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday after unexpectedly strong inflation data and a drop in weekly jobless claims added to fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates to tame high prices. GOLD Gold prices dipped on Friday and were set for a third straight weekly drop as investors fretted about more rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve after a slew of strong economic data. EMERGING MARKETS For the top emerging markets news, double click on - - - -

Some of the main stories out in the South African press: BUSINESS DAY - Medical schemes regulator moves to place Medipos under provisional curatorship - Zeda ready to pounce on recovering car rental market (Compiled by Bhargav Acharya)