South African rand flat, investors eye commodity prices and trade talks

JOHANNESBURG, July 9 (Reuters) - The South African commodity-driven rand was steady in early trade on Wednesday, with investor focus on precious metal prices, which fell after U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats.

On Tuesday, Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on copper, hoping to boost U.S. production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, power grids and many consumer goods.

At 0726 GMT the rand traded at 17.7950 against the dollar ZAR=D3, a whisker away from Tuesday's close.

South Africa is a major producer of minerals, precious and base metals and its rand like other commodity-linked currencies will be closely tracking developments from Washington.

Prices of spot gold XAU=, platinum XPT= and copper outside the U.S. fell in early trade.

Compounding pressure on the rand is the country's attempts to negotiate a less damaging trade deal with the United States before the extended August 1 deadline as it faces a 30% trade tariff on its exports to the U.S.

Trump also reiterated on Tuesday his threat of 10% tariffs on the BRICS bloc, which includes South Africa.

Its benchmark 2035 government bond ZAR2035= was little changed in early deals, with the yield down half a basis point at 9.89%.