South Africa's rand retreats as dollar surge rattles risk demand
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 12 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand wasweaker on Monday, with yield-seeking investors continuing toback the dollar and move out of riskier emerging-market andequity assets dampened by signs of softening demand in China andrate tightening by the Federal Reserve.
* At 0650 GMT, the rand was 0.56 percent weaker at14.4000 per dollar, buckling from a two-month best of 13.8700last week, as the greenback accelerated towards a16-month high.
* The momentum that saw the rand pierce the crucial 14.00technical resistance level was short-lived despite local datasuggesting the economy was slowly recovering from recession andbets that the mid-term U.S. election results would tame demandfor the dollar.
* "From a technical perspective, we recommend keeping an eyeon the USDZAR resistance level of 14.40 and the support level of14.00," Nedbank analysts said in a note.
* An index tracking consumer staples firms in China showeddemand fell, while e-commerce giant Alibaba's 24-houronline retail frenzy "Singles' Day showed the event's annualgrowth dropped to its slowest rate.
* Concerns about slowing growth in China, which is amongSouth Africa's largest trade destination, and the impact of thetariff spat between Beijing and Washington have also kept demandfor the rand and other EM currency brittle.
* Bonds weakened, with the yield on the benchmark paper duein 2026 rising 5 basis points to 9.25 percent.
* Stocks were set to open flat at 0700 GMT, with the JSEsecurities exchange's Top-40 futures index down 0.06percent.
(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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