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Johannesburg - The rand was slightly firmer against the dollar in noon trade on Friday as it tracked a euro that had posted modest gains against the greenback.
"I'm not sure what is driving the euro move," a local currency trader said.
"But we did have two days of large moves in the rand so some consolidation was expected here," he said.
"The rand is still, however, weak - just look at the crosses," the trader said.
"However, it seems to be a fairly quiet day and the rand probably won't be as volatile as it has been recently."
At 11:35 local time, the rand was bid at R7.6823 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.6966. It was bid at R10.1860 to the euro from R10.1628 before, and at R12.1882 against sterling from R12.1751 previously.
The euro was bid at US$1.3258 from its previous close of US$1.3205.
RMB said in a note on Friday morning that global markets had struggled this week, despite "hype" about a phoenix-like US economic recovery last week.
"To be fair, US data has remained quite positive: US existing home sales data on Wednesday and jobless claims figures yesterday were both better than expected."
RMB said the problem was rather that the strength in the US economy seemed to be an anomaly.
"The weak Chinese PMI (purchasing managers' index) numbers yesterday were followed by similarly poor figures from the eurozone, with the headline figure falling from 49.3 to 48.7 in March. This is consistent with a contraction in the economy in 1Q12, which, following a 0.3% q/q saar decline in 4Q11, implies Europe is in a recession."
"I'm not sure what is driving the euro move," a local currency trader said.
"But we did have two days of large moves in the rand so some consolidation was expected here," he said.
"The rand is still, however, weak - just look at the crosses," the trader said.
"However, it seems to be a fairly quiet day and the rand probably won't be as volatile as it has been recently."
At 11:35 local time, the rand was bid at R7.6823 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.6966. It was bid at R10.1860 to the euro from R10.1628 before, and at R12.1882 against sterling from R12.1751 previously.
The euro was bid at US$1.3258 from its previous close of US$1.3205.
RMB said in a note on Friday morning that global markets had struggled this week, despite "hype" about a phoenix-like US economic recovery last week.
"To be fair, US data has remained quite positive: US existing home sales data on Wednesday and jobless claims figures yesterday were both better than expected."
RMB said the problem was rather that the strength in the US economy seemed to be an anomaly.
"The weak Chinese PMI (purchasing managers' index) numbers yesterday were followed by similarly poor figures from the eurozone, with the headline figure falling from 49.3 to 48.7 in March. This is consistent with a contraction in the economy in 1Q12, which, following a 0.3% q/q saar decline in 4Q11, implies Europe is in a recession."
