UPDATE 1-South African rand steadies after surge on U.S. Fed comments

(Updates to reflect afternoon trade) JOHANNESBURG, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The South African rand held steady on Thursday, after surging a day earlier when the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it had turned a corner in the fight against inflation. Investors took a dovish cue from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks on Wednesday that "the disinflationary process has started" in the world's largest economy, prompting the dollar to tumble and boosting emerging market currencies worldwide. The rand gained more than 2% against the dollar on Wednesday. At 1605 GMT on Thursday it traded at 17.0250, compared to its previous close of 17.0350.

ETM Analytics said in a research note that for now South African news was a distraction given the large sell-off in the dollar. With no domestic data releases on Thursday, the rand was mainly taking its cues from global drivers. On Friday local investors will look to the purchasing managers' index survey for January by S&P Global for clues on the health of the economy. The rand is among the worst-performing emerging market currencies this year, weighed down by a power crisis that has seen outages on every day in 2023. On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the All-share index closed down 0.02%.

The government's benchmark 2030 bond was slightly stronger, with the yield down 1 basis point to 9.490%. (Reporting by Alexander Winning and Nellie Peyton; editing by Uttaresh.V and James Macharia Chege)

Reuters

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UPDATE 1-South African rand steadies after surge on U.S. Fed comments

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