JOHANNESBURG, March 5 (Reuters) – South Africa’s risk-sensitive rand was little changed early on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump’s first speech to Congress since taking office on January 20.

At 0708 GMT, the rand traded at 18.4550 against the dollar ZAR=D3, near its previous closing level.

The dollar was also flat as investors tried to assess Trump’s speech on Tuesday after he reshaped U.S. foreign policy, ignited a trade war and ousted tens of thousands of government workers in six tumultuous weeks since returning to power.

“The higher the degree of stock market volatility, the less inclined investors will be to head towards emerging markets, especially the rand, which suffers high degrees of volatility and faces the prospect of a budget announcement next week,” ETM Analytics said in a research note.

The domestic economic data calendar is light on Wednesday, the only major release being February’s whole economy purchasing managers’ index ZAPMIM=ECI survey, which showed business activity continued to weaken but that the pace of contraction slowed.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond ZAR2030= was weaker in early deals, with the yield up 1 basis points to 9.045%.

(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Andrew Heavens)