KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — The ringgit opened marginally higher against the US dollar on Monday following the tepid US economic data released last week, despite a decline in oil price, a dealer said.
At 9.07am, the local currency was trading at 4.2000/2030 against the greenback from 4.2070/2080 at Friday’s close.
The dealer said US non-farm payroll data showed that the US economy added only a mere 199,000 jobs in the last month of the year 2021, down from 249,000 in November.
“Even though the US dollar index fell amid a disappointing US December jobs report, the US dollar may turn muted against ringgit this week and is expected to trade around the 4.21 level due to lingering Omicron worries,” he said.
He said the local note may face another round of sell-off if the US inflation rate spikes again, increasing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would kick off its policy normalisation sooner.
At press time, the benchmark Brent crude oil price fell 0.37 per cent to US$81.45 per barrel.
At opening, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of other major currencies.
It depreciated versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0983/1007 from Friday’s close of 3.0958/0981 and dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.6342/6371 from 3.6320/6336.
The local currency eased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.7091/7131 from 5.6999/7037 on Friday and weakened against the euro to 4.7691/7725 from 4.7602/7640.
— Bernama
