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Rand steady vs dollar, focus on US data

Johannesburg - The rand steadied against the dollar early on Tuesday, struggling against a bolstered greenback as investors anticipated upbeat data on the world's biggest economy.

Economists anticipate US data on items such as retail sales to show strength for the US economy, supporting plans by the Federal Reserve to slow the taps on its bond-buying programme that has also boosted emerging market assets.

Withdrawal of US stimulus would pressure the rand as it casts doubts over the easy funding of the current account, with the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) acknowledging last month account financing was not as comfortable as it used to be.

At 08:35 the rand was at R9.8850, not far off its close in New York on Monday.

Emerging markets were little changed as the euro/dollar traded in a tight range and investors were waiting for US retail sales data that come out later in the session.

The rand will need to clear through Monday's support at the 9.90 area to open up further weakness to R9.96, the previous low.

The currency is likely to take more strain than its peers as investors worry about labour strife in the local fractious platinum belt that has slowed production of minerals for export.

A worker was shot at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Monday, just days before the first anniversary of the killing of 34 striking miners by police.

Yields on government bonds were down four basis points on the benchmark 2026 issue to 8.215%.

The National Treasury is looking to sell R2.35bn ($239m) in 2023, 2037 and 2041  bonds. Results of the sale will be out after auction closes at 11:00.

Later in the session Sarb governor Gill Marcus will give a talk to financial professionals at 15:10.
 
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Rand - Dollar
18.88
+0.3%
Rand - Pound
23.85
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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