At 9am, the local note fell to 4.1630/1655 versus the greenback from 4.1600/1630 at yesterday’s close.

Meanwhile, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the 10-year US Treasury yield has surpassed the 1.60% level, suggesting that the bond market expects the rate hiking cycle to begin in 2022.

“Aside from that, the US Dollar Index (DXY) has increased to more than 95 points since last week following the sharp increase in consumer’s inflation rate, which rose to 6.2% year-on-year in October,” he said.

Given the current scenario, Afzanizam expects the local note to remain weak for the day, trading in the RM4.16-RM4.17 range.

“Should the US Retail Sales data come in stronger than expected today, the dollar could stay elevated as it strengthens the case for an earlier rate hike by the US Federal Reserve,” he added.

Meanwhile, the local note was traded mostly higher against a basket of major currencies, except against the British pound where it had depreciated to 5.5847/5880 from 5.5794/5834 at yesterday’s close.

The ringgit increased vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.6460/6482 from 3.6543/6569 at the close on Monday, jumped versus the euro to 4.7350/7378 from 4.7620/7654 previously, and rose against the Singapore dollar at 3.0769/0792 from 3.0790/0814 yesterday.