The rand was softer on the crosses overnight, which meant a weaker opening on Thursday morning. The local currency is expected to track the Dow for any significant movement, a local currency trader said.

At 8.49am the rand was bid at 7.4921 to the dollar from 7.4368 at its previous close. It was bid at 11.1573 to the euro from its previous close of 11.1196 and was at 12.5087 against sterling from 12.4267.

The euro was bid at $1.4919 from $1.4961 overnight.

A local trader said: "We were weaker on the crosses overnight, but until the Dow does anything significant, we are still sitting in a range."

RMB analysts John Cairns and Nema Ramkhelawan in a morning report noted that the US dollar/rand strolled back and forth between 7.48 and 7.40 yesterday.

"The unit is suspended below 7.50 and is likely to trade above this level today as the market appears to be suffering from fatigue. Having retreated to 1.48 earlier this week, euro/US dollar is clawing its way back up to 1.50. The unit, however, does not appear to have the energy to extend itself beyond this level," the analysts said.

"Weekly US jobless benefit claims, due later today, will offer some indication of the state of labour conditions. The rand will take heed of movements in the gold price, which continues to provide support to the unit despite a slight pullback yesterday. We are unlikely to witness extreme fluctuations in the rand, however, given lower levels of volatility and a narrow trading range which has been evident over the last few days," RMB said.

"Besides daily event risk, the market is paying careful attention to comments arising from the US, following Chairman Bernanke's remarks earlier this week, with another prominent Federal Reserve official confirming that US interest rates are likely to remain near zero for an extended period of time," Cairns and Ramkhelawan concluded

Dow Jones Newswires reported that the euro fell against the yen and dollar in Asia on Thursday as weak stocks caused investors to shun the risk-sensitive unit, but dealers said it may soon rebound on a lack of supporting factors for the yen and dollar.

"US investors (based in Japan) took their cue from falling share prices, an easy-to-understand risk-aversion signal, to decrease their euro-holdings before the Thanksgiving holidays," said Yuichiro Harada, a senior dealer at Mizuho Corporate Bank.

Bonds were slightly firmer in early trade on Thursday in a follow-through from market action late on Wednesday afternoon. Players are now looking to next week's inflation numbers for direction.

By 8.50am, the short-term government R154 bond was bid at 7.175 percent from a previous close of 7.155 percent. The medium-term R157 was at 8.250 percent from 8.280 percent at its previous close, while the long-term R186 was at 8.970 percent from 8.980 percent before.