South Africa's rand steadies, Eskom casts shadow

South Africa's rand steadied on Friday but remained vulnerable after falling sharply the day before when Standard & Poor's downgraded the power utility Eskom to junk, underlining the fragile state of the economy. The currency weakened more than 2 percent to 12.3535/dollar on Thursday after S&P cut Eskom's long-term ratings to 'BB+' from 'BBB-' and national scale ratings to 'zaA/zaA-2' from 'zaAA-/zaA-1, below investment grade. "The r