The rand was stable in the late morning on Wednesday, while international markets see-sawed on US and EU central bank comments. The rand, like other risk currencies, traded cautiously after European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi hinted on Tuesday that the ECB was preparing to temper its quantitative easing programme. TreasuryOne dealer Andre Botha said emerging markets lost ground in reaction to a surging euro following Draghi’s comments. US Federal Reserve Bank chairwoman Janet Yellen seemed to be sending mixed messages in that, while interest rates are set to increase, they will only do so "gradually". She also touched on plans to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet. Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns said a combination of higher ECB tapering risks and lowered hopes of the US fiscal stimulus were a negative combination for global markets all round. "The overall policy environment could become quite contractionary later this year." At 11.34am, the rand was at R13.0190 to...
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