South Africa’s rand edges weaker in early trade

South Africa’s rand edged weaker on Tuesday morning following a brief overnight recovery from an ongoing trade spat between China and the United States. At 07:14 GMT the rand was 0.2 percent weaker at 13.5675 per dollar, having traded as firm as 13.4000 overnight as importers were enticed to buy the currency cheap with technical resistance expected near 13.30.

“Through the New York session the focus returned back to the dollar, which lost more ground across the board on continued trade war fears,” said Reezwana Sumad, economist at Nedbank.

The rand is expected to struggle to hold on to momentum in either direction as the trade war simmers, with an escalation expected to feed bearish sentiment across emerging market currencies.

Stocks rose, with the JSE Top-40 futures index up almost 0.2 percent.

In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark government bond due in 2026 was down 0.5 basis points at 0714 GMT, at 8.91 percent.