The rand gained more than 2% against the U.S. currency over Tuesday and Wednesday, but by 1400 GMT it was trading down around 0.2% on its previous close at 15.3250 per dollar.
Analysts at ETM Analytics said in a research note that Wednesday was the first time the rand had closed below 15.5000 since mid-November and that the dollar-rand pair looked slightly oversold as of Thursday morning at 15.3100.
There have been relatively few domestic economic data releases this week, so the rand has tended to track global factors like the outlook for U.S. monetary policy.
Next week the data calendar includes December consumer inflation, and November mining and retail sales figures.
On Jan. 27, the South Africa Reserve Bank announces its first interest rate decision of 2022, with some traders expecting the bank will hike its repo rate for the second monetary policy meeting in a row.
Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were muted on Thursday as investors digested U.S. inflation data numbers after record gains of this year a day earlier. Most global markets stabilised after big single-day gains on Wednesday.
The benchmark all-share index was slightly up by 0.05% to 75,926 points and the top 40 companies' index ended marginally down 0.03% at 69,188 points.
The price of the government's benchmark 2030 bond also dropped on Thursday, with the yield rising 4.5 basis points to 9.425%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Promit Mukherjee; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
