South Africa's rand surge

South Africa's rand rose against the dollar on Thursday to hit its strongest in nearly three months, tracking fellow emerging market currencies, as the dollar was dented by hopes of US interest rate cuts. Stocks were down after the U.S national holiday reduced volumes in local equities, and the stronger currency curbed appetite for local commodities. At 1510 GMT the rand was 0.2% firmer at 14.0375 per dollar. It hit a session high of 13.9575, its strongest level since April 17.
Fuelling interest in riskier assets was a slew of soft US data on Wednesday that added to bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates as early as July. Expectations that nominated European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde will keep to a dovish policy path also helped send the dollar down. US non-farm payrolls data due on Friday is set to give another indication of whether the Federal Reserve could cut rates, and in lieu of any major local data releases provides the main focus for investors.