The rand held steady against the dollar in late afternoon trade on Tuesday. It was tracking a euro that had recovered somewhat following the release of marginally better-than-expected US home price data which led investors towards higher-yielding currencies.
"The euro had been doing fine until news came in earlier concerning the disappointing Spanish Treasury bill auction and then it fell a bit," a local currency trader said.
"But the single currency then recovered after the US home price data."
The trader added that the rand had traded in a very narrow range on Tuesday and had been subject to flows - "and very lacklustre ones too".
"I'm not sure where we go from here but the SA Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee decision on Thursday may provide direction.
"But there's not much room for a surprise though."
At 15:44 local time, the rand was bid at R7.5885 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.5831. It was bid at R10.1205 to the euro from R10.1276 before, and at R12.1310 against sterling from R12.0946 previously.
The euro was bid at US$1.3341 from its previous close of US$1.3354.
Meanwhile Dow Jones Newswires reported that the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home-price index data had been just marginally better than expected.
US home prices fell in January from a month earlier, with average home prices back to the levels they were nearly a decade ago in early 2003, according to the index.
"Despite some positive economic signs, home prices continued to drop," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee. The Case-Shiller index of 10 major metropolitan areas and the 20-city index now stood roughly 34% below their 2006 peaks," he said.
The US housing market remained sluggish last year, despite some signs of stabilisation mid-year. High unemployment rates, abundant foreclosures and tighter mortgage requirements had continued to weigh on the market.
The Case-Shiller index of 10 major metropolitan areas and the 20-city index edged down 0.8% in January from a month earlier.
Year-to-year, unadjusted December prices declined 3.9% for the 10 major markets while the 20-city index dropped 3.8%. The latest year-to-year drop represented a marginal improvement over the 4.1% decline reported last year for both indexes.
Just three cities reported annual growth. Denver home prices edged up 0.2%. Detroit and Phoenix - two cities that have seen massive price declines in recent years - reported year-to-year increases of 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Atlanta again posted the biggest drop - at nearly 15% year-to-year.
