DOLLAR STRENGHTS HOLD AS RAND TRADES WEAKEN

The rand was weaker against the dollar on Monday 09 October just before midday as currency markets traded steadily, with US markets closed for a holiday.The dollar has, however, maintained its strength, supported by an optimistic economic recovery in the US, which has put pressure on emerging-market currencies.

The dollar, which has been on a rally, still managed to retain its strength despite Friday’s worse than expected payrolls data, which came in short 33,000 jobs from an expected 80,000 jobs.

Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said while the payrolls data could have been confusing, the confidence created by US Federal Reserve members on hiking interest rates seemed to be increasing.

"Fed speakers, throughout last week, affirmed that most voting members are behind a December hike," he said.

Markets will look to the minutes from the September Fed meeting on Wednesday, 11 October, and US consumer inflation and retail sales data on Friday, 13 October, for more direction.

At 11.30am‚ the rand was at R13.7927 to the dollar from R13.7551, at R16.1940 to the euro from R16.1399 and at R18.1153 to the pound from R18.0264.