Rand slips ahead of key data releases

13 April 2016 - 11:59 By TMG Digital/BDlive
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The rand slipped on Wednesday morning as the dollar regained some composure while commodity prices such as platinum pulled back from multimonth highs.

Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said the rand was "caught between the positive of the commodity prices and the negative of the dollar".

Helping to determine a short-term trend for the dollar will be the release of US retail sales for March in the afternoon. The data are likely to help to shape the US Federal Reserve’s view on the economy and interest rates.

The release of local February retail sales this afternoon are also likely to command some attention.

NKC Research analysts expect the rand to trade between R14.62 and R14.88 to the dollar on Wednesday.

At 9am‚ the rand was trading at R14.7668 to the dollar from R14.7045 at Tuesday’s close. It was at R16.7684 against the euro from R16.7409 previously‚ and at R21.0139 against the pound from R20.9877 previously.

The euro was at $1.1356from a previous close of $1.1387.

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