The ringgit started Friday's trading session on a more positive note as it strengthened against the US dollar driven by high demand as interest in the USD waned.
At 9 am this morning, the ringgit was positive to 4.7360 against the US dollar from 4.7395 recorded yesterday.
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist, Dr Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell to 105,218 points as the country's Initial Jobless Claims (IJC) data jumped to 231,000 last week compared to 209,000 the previous week.
The increase in data proves that more US citizens are making insurance claims when not working which can be attributed to the weak labor market scenario.
He also said that the development only supports the expectation of a reduction in US interest rates when the Federal Reserve (Fed) may want to divert attention from reducing inflation to re-growth.
With this, the ringgit should show a more encouraging performance. If the data continues to be weak in the future, this will continue to increase the value of rapidly developing currencies including the ringgit.
Meanwhile, the local unit traded lower against a group of major currencies including the Japanese yen which fell to 3.0451 from 3.0401, the British pound to 5.9299 from 5.9177 and lower against the euro to 5.1054 from 5.0855 previously.
In addition, the ringgit is also traded mixed compared to Asean currencies.
It eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.5006 from 3.4939, low against the Thai baht to 12.8920 from 12.8303. However, it was firm against the Indonesian rupiah at 295.0 from 295.3 and remained unchanged against the Philippine peso at 8.26.
