The rand was quiet, barely changed from its noon levels in late afternoon trade on Wednesday and eyeing the Dow for possible direction, a trader said.

At 3.43pm the rand was bid at 7.8811 to the dollar from 7.8930 at its previous close. It was bid at 11.1940 to the euro from its previous close of 11.2285 and was at 12.7775 against sterling from 12.7505.

The euro was bid at US$1.4201 from US$1.4219 overnight.

"It looks like the market is eyeing the Dow very closely. We had a very, very, quiet day today," the trader said.

"I think this is the pause before we continue. If the Dow closes down 1 percent then the rand will go to 7.97," he said.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that the euro is down against the yen and dollar after Wednesday morning's ADP payrolls report showed a greater loss of US private-sector jobs than had been expected.

The disappointing jobs numbers sent a new wave of risk aversion through the market, though the knee-jerk reaction to the numbers still had currencies trading within their well-worn ranges.

Automatic Data Processing released its private sector jobs report on Wednesday, showing 298,000 jobs were lost in August, a worse-than-expected number. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast the data to show 213 000 jobs lost in the month, compared with July's contraction of 371 000.

A stream of positive economic data, including Tuesday's release of a report showing an uptick in US manufacturing, had not been enough for investors to be sure of a full economic turnaround, analysts said.

Wednesday's jobs report will only add uncertainty to the outlook for recovery.

"In our view, three main obstacles have to be overcome for this recovery to be sustainable: job market uncertainty, uncertainty over the rebound of bank credits, and uncertainty over the pace of monetary normalisation/tightening," said analysts at Calyon Credit Agricole.

Currency markets continue to follow the lead of equity markets, which analysts said remain unsure of a global economic recovery.

Bonds eke out 1bp in gains

Bonds eked out a single basis point gain during the afternoon session on Wednesday as some investors looked to buy into weakness. However, sentiment on the whole remains dull in the face of one of the busiest issuance weeks in recent memory.

By 3.37pm the short-term government R154 bond was bid at an unchanged 7.485 percent. The medium-term R157 was at 8.255 percent from 8.260 percent, while the long-term R186 was bid at 8.870 percent from 8.860 percent before.

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