The ringgit opened stronger against the US dollar today, boosted by improved investor confidence in emerging market currencies after a US court temporarily halted a decision to block most Trump-era import tariffs.
At 10.20am, the ringgit was at 4.2320, up 0.19% against the US dollar from 4.2390 at the close of trading on Thursday.
The US dollar continued to weaken as the Dollar Index (DXY) fell below the psychological level of 100 points, reaching 99.278 points.
According to Bank Muamalat Chief Economist, Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid, the decline occurred after the US Court of Appeals granted a stay on the decision that was supposed to block Trump-era tariffs, thus providing temporary relief to the market.
He added that weak US labour data also added to the pressure with Initial Jobless Claims data surging to 240,000 last week, exceeding expectations of 229,000. Meanwhile, Continuing Jobless Claims rose to 1.91 million from 1.89 million the previous week.
Therefore, the ringgit is expected to move higher today, possibly around RM4.21 and RM4.22, on the back of a weaker US dollar, he said.
At the opening, the ringgit was mostly traded higher against a basket of major currencies.
It rose against the British pound to 5.6943/7355 from 5.7091/7205 from Thursday's close and rose against the euro to 4.7992/8339 from 4.7803/7899 previously.
However, the local currency depreciated against the Japanese yen to 2.9349/9563 from yesterday's close of 2.9188/9249.
The local note traded mostly higher against its ASEAN peers.
It improved against the Singapore dollar to 3.2789/3031 from 3.2853/2921 at Thursday's close and rose against the Indonesian rupiah to 258.6/260.6 from 259.9/260.5 previously.
The ringgit rose against the Philippine peso to 7.56/7.62 from 7.60/7.62 at yesterday's close, but depreciated against the Thai baht to 12.9565/13.0590 from 12.9321/9647 previously.
