KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened\u00a0lower against the US dollar on Friday, as mixed signals from the United States\u00a0economy and financial markets weighed on the greenback’s outlook.<\/p>\n
At 8 am, the local note eased to\u00a04.0450\/0520 against the greenback\u00a0from Thursday\u2019s close of 4.0445\/0490.<\/p>\n
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US Dollar Index (DXY) edged up 0.03 per cent to 101.60, supported by signs of resilience in the US labour market.<\/p>\n
He said the labour market indicator, such as initial jobless claims, fell further to 189,000\u00a0last week, suggesting the US labour market remained healthy.<\/p>\n
“Still, the two- and 10-year US Treasury yields dropped 12 and five basis points to 4.46 per cent and 4.83 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n
“This suggests that the markets seem unconvinced about the rate-tightening cycle and perhaps also indicates that the scope for rate hikes has gradually diminished,” he told Bernama.<\/p>\n
Afzanizam added that the planned expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres would come under further scrutiny by the US Congress in 2027, potentially affecting optimism over valuations in the sector.<\/p>\n
This\u00a0development could weigh on optimism about the sector\u2019s valuation. At the same time, the sharp decline in technology-related stocks suggested\u00a0investors had become increasingly wary of the premium attached to the sector.<\/p>\n
“On that note, the ringgit is likely to stay within a narrow band of RM4.04 to RM4.05 today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The ringgit traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.<\/p>\n
It appreciated against the euro to\u00a04.5413\/5492 from 4.5428\/5478 at Thursday\u2019s close, edged up vis-a-vis\u00a0the British pound to 5.4421\/4516 from 5.4455\/4516, but fell versus\u00a0the Japanese yen to 2.5683\/5729 from 2.5548\/5578\u00a0previously.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the ringgit performed mixed against its ASEAN peers.<\/p>\n
It gained versus the Singapore dollar to\u00a03.1646\/1706 from the previous\u00a0close of 3.1679\/1717, and increased against the Thai baht to 12.0836\/1122 from 12.1013\/1199 yesterday.<\/p>\n
The local currency\u00a0inched down versus the rupiah to 223.7\/224.1\u00a0from 223.6\/224.0 from Thursday\u2019s close, and was flat vis-a-vis the Philippine\u00a0peso at 6.42\/6.43. – Bernama<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit opened\u00a0lower against the US dollar on Friday, as mixed signals from the United States\u00a0economy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28,379566,8700,2637,112,18999,15462,18998,47795],"class_list":["post-907557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-dxy","tag-forex","tag-labour-market","tag-markets","tag-mohd-afzanizam-abdul-rashid","tag-opening","tag-ringgit","tag-us-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}