The rand was weaker against major currencies on Wednesday morning with the US Federal Reserve scheduled to release the minutes from its December meeting later in the session.
At 8.30am‚ the rand was at R15.7312 against the dollar from R15.6371 previously.
Against the euro the rand was at R16.9126 from R16.8102. The local unit was trading at R23.0635 against the pound from R22.9480.
The euro was unchanged against the dollar at $1.0751.
The Fed ended months of speculation on December 16 when it announced plans to raise short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point‚ bringing an end to seven years of near-zero rates‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Markets and economists had widely predicted the move but are now eager for clues about what happens next.
In December‚ Fed officials emphasised they planned to raise interest rates in a "gradual" manner‚ so markets on Wednesday would be watching for what the central bank means by “gradual”‚ the newswires said.
Meanwhile‚ Barclays Research said global risk aversion — spurred on by tension in the Middle East — was keeping the rand on the back foot.
"Following this morning’s fresh bout of weakness in Asian equity markets (due to) ... further devaluation of the renminbi‚ we expect the rand to maintain a weaker bias at the start of trading today."
The research team said investors would be on the lookout for other data from the US‚ namely factory orders and durable goods.
"Given that most investors are still on holiday ... (we) believe that there will not be any strong conviction ahead of Friday’s US employment report‚ which could heighten Fed rate hike concerns‚" the research team said.
- TMG Digital/BDlive
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