Andre Botha, Senior Dealer at TreasuryONE said with only one day away from the national election, the rand was expected to stay with the rand expected to stay in a tight range with the R14.50 handle.

By 09:20, the rand was changing hands at R14.47 to the greenback.

"We expect the fallout from the election to take a short amount of time to happen as the election results will be known over the weekend. For the most part, we expect the rand to stay within tight ranges with headline risk still in evidence on the local front.

"On the international front, the Trump tweet rally subsided a little with the US dollar losing a bit of ground from yesterday and equity markets returning to normal after the sharp sell-off we saw yesterday. 

"For the rand, at the moment we are looking at pressures from two sides with the upcoming election and the US-China trade spat, which is turning into a soap opera at the moment, with China officials meeting with their US counterparts on Thursday despite the threat of tariffs that will be imposed on Friday.

"The currency uncertainty strengthens our view at least in the short term that the rand could trade sideways heading into the elections.”

Asian stocks pare losses on trade talks

Andreea Papuc, Bloomberg

Stocks in Asia pared losses Tuesday as investors assessed the re-escalating trade war amid confirmation China’s vice premier would attend talks this week.

US Treasury yields ticked higher and the dollar steadied.

Korean and Japanese shares slid as both markets came back online after holidays, while stocks in China and Hong Kong fluctuated.

European and US futures pointed lower, while the yuan dipped. News that Vice Premier Liu He would still visit the US helped pare losses.

Australian shares trimmed gains and the Aussie climbed after the central bank did not cut rates as some analysts had expected. The pound ticked higher.

Earlier, Treasuries had risen after President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator said Washington plans to proceed with a tariff hike on Chinese goods on Friday.

Indications that China would still send a delegation to Washington this week had helped temper declines on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 Index closing off of its lows of the session Monday.

Investor sentiment remained fragile as traders waited for the next development in the trade negotiations.

Talks with Chinese officials will take place Thursday and Friday, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters Monday.

At the same time, the Trump administration plans to increase duties on Chinese imports at on Friday, he said.

The US and China had been making substantial progress on a trade deal, but in the past week China reneged on some of its promises, Lighthizer said.

Significant issues remain unresolved, including whether tariffs will remain in place, he added.

“Reality is setting in that they are not going to get the master deal, the grand deal that they are hoping for and there’s a lot of work to be done,” Oliver Pursche, Bruderman Asset Management’s chief market strategist, told Bloomberg TV. “Our best guess is that these tariffs will be implemented on Friday, but will then be reversed relatively quickly.’’

Elsewhere, the lira slumped after Turkey ordered a re-run of mayoral elections in Istanbul, overturning a rare defeat for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Oil extended an advance as the Trump administration dispatched warships to the Middle East in a warning to Iran.

Steinhoff to release restated financial results for 2017 on Tuesday

Steinhoff is set to release its restated and audited financial results for 2017 on Tuesday, giving investors insight into how a yearlong forensic probe by PwC has altered the multinational retailer's financial position.

The group announced back in mid-December 2017 that investors could no longer rely on its 2017 and 2018 results, after its auditors flagged accounting irregularities in its books and its CEO Markus Jooste abruptly stepped down.