The Commerce Department said on Wednesday the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, rose 11.8% to $195.7 billion last quarter.
Ten-year Treasury yields fell more than 10 basis points on Thursday, the biggest one-day move down since early-November, Yields touched a low of 1.5280% -- well off 14-month highs hit recently above 1.77%.
On Friday, yields rose again to 1.56%, up 3.5 basis points on the day but still down eight bps from where the market opened on Thursday.
IMF First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto said that in early April the Fund would update its January forecast for global growth of 5.5% to reflect additional fiscal stimulus spending in the United States, but gave no details.
After having made considerable gains over the course of the month thus far, a combination of factors saw the rand retreat.
Both as it failed to make any headway beyond the support at 14.40 and on talk by an international bank suggesting that any long rand positions be squared out to its clients.