The rand was slightly weaker against the dollar on Thursday just before midday, trading in narrow ranges in a listless market. The market has favoured the dollar following a series of positive data releases and hawkish speeches US Federal Reserve governors over the past two weeks. Sentiment regarding the uptick in US economic growth has been driving markets, with the focus now on nonfarm payroll data due on Friday FTXM research analyst Lukman Otunuga said the US economy received another boost from the nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index reading for September earlier this week, which was the highest since August 2005. TreasuryOne currency dealer Gerard van der Westhuizen said that at the moment, markets seemed to be pricing in more positive data from the US. "This can mean that weaker data from the nonfarm payrolls could lead to bigger losses and a break towards R13.45/$." At 1132am‚ the rand was at R13.6189 to the dollar from R13.5683, at R16.0251 to the euro from R15.9596 an...
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