South Africa's rand inched up early on Wednesday, attempting a recovery from an almost two-month low as investors awaited fresh signals on the global and domestic economic outlook.

At 0630 GMT, the rand traded at 17.49 per dollar, up about 0.3% after falling more than 1% on Tuesday amid weaker gold prices, in line with other commodity-linked currencies.

Investors now await the S&P Global October whole-economy PMI due at 0715 GMT for insights into business conditions in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

Last month's index showed that business conditions in South Africa's private sector improved for the fifth month running in September, buoyed by a rise in output and new orders.

It also flagged that business expectations for the year ahead fell to their lowest level since July 2021, with concerns over economic and political uncertainty cited for dampening sentiment.

The domestic calendar looks relatively lean for the rest of the week, with October's foreign reserves data due on Friday the main focus for further clues on the health of the local economy.

South Africa's benchmark 2035 government bond was flat in early deals, with the yield at 8.835%.

The nation's risk-sensitive assets could consolidate around the current levels unless a significant catalyst related to domestic politics, US policy and economic events emerges for directional momentum.

"Given yesterday's sell-off, today's trading session will be particularly interesting to see whether the stock market correction gathers momentum or stalls. If the latter, fears of a major bout of ZAR depreciation will subside," said ETM Analytics in a research note.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index fell more than 2% on Tuesday hurt mainly by precious metal miners.