The rand was slightly firmer in early morning trade on Wednesday as the dollar battled to hold on to its stronger levels against the euro. The rand normally trades inversely to the dollar. Commodity prices were flat. The dollar gained against the euro on Tuesday on upbeat US retail sales data, which may lead to a more hawkish stance from US Federal Reserve. The release of the Fed’s minutes on Wednesday is likely to provide further market guidance as to the extent of possible US rate increases this year. "The key points in the minutes that the markets would be looking at will be whether there is any mention of tapering of QE [quantitative easing] and when it will start and the other point being how concerned the Fed was with the troubling inflation number," said TreasuryOne currency dealer Andre Botha. US consumer inflation has remained at around 1.6% for the past seven months; the Fed has a target of 2%. The local market was also eyeing retail sales data for June. A better than expe...
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