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By Reuters Staff
(Updates rand, adds bonds and stocks)
JOHANNESBURG, June 3 (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand weakened on Thursday, stepping back from a more than two-year peak hit earlier in the session, as the dollar rose after stronger-than-expected U.S. private payrolls data that suggested an improving labour market.
At 1506 GMT the rand was 0.59% weaker at 13.6050 per dollar, having touched 13.4975 earlier, its firmest level since February 2019.
The earlier rally was mainly driven by growing appetite for riskier but high-yielding assets.
“Growing bets that Fed monetary tapering may not be imminent drove a rotation out of the USD and into higher-Beta currencies such as the ZAR, with the high real yields SA offers still proving to be too enticing to ignore,” said economists at ETM Analytics.
Oil prices dip after recent gains Currencies moves limited to tight ranges
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - World stocks stepped back from record highs on Thursday as investors weighed inflation concerns ahead of key U.S. economic data, while oil prices rose for a third straight session.
Market sentiment was cagey as investors backed away from big bets before the release on Friday of U.S. jobs data, which should offer further clarity on whether the faster-than-expected pace of economic recovery can be sustained and what that might mean for monetary policy.
In Europe, the broad Euro STOXX index was 0.6% down, drifting away from record highs scaled on Tuesday, with Britain’s FTSE 100 slipping 1%, while Germany’s DAX and the French CAC 40 were both down 0.6%.
Shares in Italy's Illimity rose as much as 6% on Thursday lifted by a report privately-owned ION Group is interested in the Italian digital lender and bad loan specialist. Italian daily Il Messaggero reported in its MoltoEconomia supplement that ION wanted to take a "significant.
The Federal Reserve's response to the COVID crisis, which included tried and true tools as well as novel ones, helped offset the unprecedented blow to the U.S. economy last year and will continue to bolster it this year, a top U.S. central banker said Thursday.