JOHANNESBURG, Sept 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand inchedup against the dollar in early trade on Friday, as globalmonetary easing and hints of progress in the U.S.-China tradedispute buoyed risk appetite.
At 0610 GMT, the rand was 0.05% firmer at 14.5925per dollar, from its Thursday close of 14.6000.
"The local unit seems to be star struck by global markets asall elements move in favour of the rand. The past two weeks haveseen markets turn from skittish and risk averse, to an emergingmarket dream," Bianca Botes, Treasury Partner at PeregrineTreasury Solutions said in a note.
The rand drew support from new stimulus measures by theEuropean Central Bank (ECB) after it promised an indefinitesupply of fresh asset purchases and cut interest rates deeperinto negative territory to support the economy.
The ECB news further buoyed riskier bets, already boosted bysigns of detente in the U.S.-China trade war.
Bonds were flat, with the yield on the benchmark instrumentdue in 2026 at 8.11%.(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Uttaresh.V)