South African rand pauses; eyes still on dollar and Turkey

Illustration photo shows a two-rand coin above a South African flag April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 24 (Reuters) – The South African rand paused early on Wednesday after a losing streak linked to a stronger U.S. dollar and contagion from a plummeting Turkish lira.

At 0703 GMT the rand traded at 15.8400 against the dollar, unchanged from its previous close.

The dollar (.DXY) also stabilised against a basket of currencies after surging on the nomination of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for a second term. read more

With no major domestic economic data releases due on Wednesday, analysts are expecting the rand to track global drivers once more.

“The contagion spillover effect from Turkey and rampant dollar remain the key drivers,” Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE, said in…