Money SA economy
The rand was soft in morning play on Tuesday eyeing 8.00 versus the greenback, tracking an under pressure euro.
At 8.57am the rand was bid at R7.94 to the dollar, R9.77 to the euro and R11.39 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2275 from $1.2348 previously.
A local trader said: "The rand is tracking a soft euro, which could come under all sorts of pressure today. As if the euro didn't have enough problems, this Korean business can't be good. We really need the euro to track above 1.23, otherwise the rand will likely head above 8.00 against the dollar," he said.
RMB analysts said in a morning report that the deluge of US data due on Tuesday may detract from the ongoing political wrangling in Europe and keep US dollar/rand suspended below 8.00.
Elsewhere, the greenback soared against several key Asian currencies on Tuesday, hitting multi-month highs and prompting suspected intervention in foreign exchange markets by central banks in the Philippines, South Korea and Indonesia, looking to slow the dollar gains, a stark contrast with interventions in recent weeks that sought to prop up the dollar against high- flying units.
