Johannesburg - South Africa's rand was steady against the dollar early on Friday, with investors cautious ahead of US jobs data which may support expectations of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve later this year.
The local unit largely brushed off domestic data that showed showing net gold and foreign exchange reserves rose to $41.934 billion in April from $41.275 billion in March.
At 08h20 GMT the rand was trading at 12.0525 to the dollar, not far off its Thursday closing level of 12.0405.
“The rand is in a place where confidence in direction is low and positioning is possibly lower,” said Warrick Butler, a currency trader at Standard Bank, in a market note.
“Today's ever-important US payrolls data could be a watershed moment. A day of general malaise may be in order as the market awaits this afternoon's data.”
In fixed income, the yield for the 2026 benchmark was flat at 8.09 percent.
Reuters