Johannesburg - The rand slumped to its weakest in three weeks on Thursday as employment data from the US showed a sharp drop in job losses, bolstering bets of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve next week.
At 5pm, the rand was bid at R13.2464 to the dollar, 17.09c softer than at the same time on Wednesday.
The rand was on the back foot early on in the session as US initial jobless claims remained below 300000 for a 105th consecutive week, pushing the chances of a rate increase to near certainty.
The unit had outperformed most emerging market currencies in the first half of the week as steady commodity prices boosted demand, prompting traders to predict some profit-taking.
Government bonds also weakened.