The rand was softer against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday, moving back into the 9.50s, as some nervousness about global stock markets returned to the markets.

At 8.30am the rand was bid at 9.5605 to the dollar from an overnight close of 9.4450. It was bid at 12.8930 to the euro from a previous 12.7697 and at 14.0420 against sterling from 13.9237 before.

The euro was bid at $1.3477 from $1.3469 overnight.

A local currency trader said there was some nervousness around as the stock markets dipped again with a rise in risk aversion. He added that the rand had broken above 9.50 - a strong resistance level.

The currency will be watching key economic data today - both local and global. He added that the one to be watch would be US new home sales this afternoon - if they are worse than expected, he said the rand could firm a bit.

Locally the SARB quarterly bulletin and CPI data will be keenly eyed.

RMB analyst John Cairns said in his daily report that the big news from the rand's perspective from the MPC statement was that the 4Q08 current account deficit totalled only 5.8 percent of GDP.

"We had expected a whopping 7.5 percent. As the SARB said, this number is somewhat of an anomaly, and the deficit will certainly expand again into this year. We wait for the breakdown of the data in today's Quarterly Bulletin, which is key for us economists but will probably be ignored by the markets, but just maybe the balance of payments position is set to improve faster than we thought," he said.

He expects the rand to trade in a 9.45 to 9.70 range today.

"But perhaps we can forget local news - the dominant issue remains what's happening in the global currency markets. Here, we have a failure of the global stock market rally to extend as investors analyse the details of the new bail-out plan.

"Add an easing of market worries that the Fed's quantitative easing (boosting money supply by buying government bonds) is negative for the USD and fresh fears that Eastern European problems will spread into Western Europe as the Czech government became the third to fall in the region. The result, EUR/USD has turned off the 1.37 level and by trading at 1.35 this morning implies USD/ZAR back to 9.55/60. This may signal the end of the EUR (and so the ZAR's) rally," he added.

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