At 9.06am, the local note eased to 4.1600/1630 versus the greenback from 4.1525/1545 at yesterday’s close.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US inflation data (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) came in higher than expected at 4.6% against the forecast of 4.3%, thus becoming the main catalyst for the upward movement in the US dollar-ringgit pairing.

He said the annualised inflation of 4.6% in the US is the highest in 30 years, due to the huge amount of money being poured into the financial market as a stimulus to fight the pandemic.

“Also, the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) dovish policy since the start of the pandemic has made the situation even worse.

“With this inflation reading, the market concluded that the Fed will most likely have to raise interest rates earlier than expected in 2023,” he said.

From a technical standpoint, if the pair breaks above 4.1600, it could rise to 4.1900 in some days, Diniz added.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded higher against a basket of major currencies.

It increased against the Japanese yen to 3.6469/6495 from 3.6683/6704 on Wednesday and appreciated versus the Singapore dollar to 3.0726/0750 from 3.0816/0833 previously.

The local note increased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.5744/5784 from 5.6208/6235 at yesterday’s close and rose against the euro to 4.7732/7766 from 4.8078/8101.