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Johannesburg - The rand was steady against the dollar on Tuesday after touching two-week highs overnight, but could come under pressure as the market braces for the possible scaling back this week of monthly bond purchases by the US central bank.
By 06:45 GMT the rand was at R10.2840 to the greenback, barely changed from Monday's New York close at R10.2820. Johannesburg traders were back in the market after Monday's Reconciliation Daypublic holiday.
The Federal Reserve was due to start its latest two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with some analysts seeing the off-chance that it could begin tapering its $85bn per month bond-buying programme this week, although a large majority only see this happening in March.
Tapering would be negative for high-yielding but riskier emerging market currencies like the rand that have benefited from huge inflows of cheap dollars into the global system.
"With the rand trading close to its strongest levels of the month one feels that some risk shedding and consolidation is in order ahead of the (Fed) event risk tomorrow," Tradition Analytics said in a note.
By 06:45 GMT the rand was at R10.2840 to the greenback, barely changed from Monday's New York close at R10.2820. Johannesburg traders were back in the market after Monday's Reconciliation Daypublic holiday.
The Federal Reserve was due to start its latest two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with some analysts seeing the off-chance that it could begin tapering its $85bn per month bond-buying programme this week, although a large majority only see this happening in March.
Tapering would be negative for high-yielding but riskier emerging market currencies like the rand that have benefited from huge inflows of cheap dollars into the global system.
"With the rand trading close to its strongest levels of the month one feels that some risk shedding and consolidation is in order ahead of the (Fed) event risk tomorrow," Tradition Analytics said in a note.
