The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar this morning due to yesterday's strong US labor market report.
US Initial Jobless Claims data came in lower than expected at 218,000 last week compared to the consensus estimate of 221,000. This has reduced the expectation of a decrease in interest rates in March.
According to Bank Muamalat Bhd's Chief Economist, Dr Afzanizam Rashid said the US benchmark S&P 500 has briefly crossed the 5,000 point mark.
Overall, the US dollar seems to be favored to go higher because the Federal Reserve (Fed) may not give any indication to the contrary.
Therefore, the ringgit is likely to remain weak against the US dollar throughout the day.
At exactly 9am this morning, the ringgit fell to 4.7820 against the US dollar from its close of 4.7705 yesterday.
However, the ringgit traded lower against a basket of major currencies but improved against the Japanese yen to 3.2010/3.2046 from 3.2068/3.2100 at Thursday's close.
It eased against the British pound to 6.0320/6.0383 from 6.0251/6.0302 previously and eased against the euro to 5.1516/5.1570 from 5.1445/5.1488.
The local currency also traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies but did better against the Thai baht at 13.3103/13.3317 from 13.3191/13.3362.
The ringgit was slightly lower against the Singapore dollar at 3.5477/3.5517 compared to Thursday's 3.5471/3.5506. It was also lower against the Indonesian rupiah at 305.8/306 compared to 305.0/305.5 and eased against the Philippine peso to 8.55/8.56 from 8.53/8.54.
