"I think people are a bit wary going into the weekend, nobody really knows what next week's going to hold. It's U.S. earnings season ... so I think a lot of attention is going to be there," said Mitchell Gannaway, a trader at Thebe Securities in a Reuters Business report.

"From what we've seen so far, the announcements, it seems like it's going to be a decent earnings season."

At 1540 GMT the rand traded just 0.07 percent softer against the greenback at 7.5842 after ending Thursday trade at 7.7790.

"We're getting a bit more consolidation on the day ... It's been very rangebound, 7.55-7.60 kind of on the day, with the looming (European bank) stress tests and earnings data out of the U.S. still boding as a risk in the market," said Rand Merchant Bank trader Brigid Taylor.

Stress tests being conducted on banks across Europe, due to be published on July 23, are aimed at dispelling market concerns about the financial sector.

Debt concerns in the euro zone have eroded investor appetite over the last few months, leading to rand weakness.

"We're expecting the rand to remain rather weaker than stronger for the foreseeable future," Taylor said.