At 9am, the local currency eased to 4.4595/4640 versus the greenback from yesterday’s closing rate of 4.4565/4585.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the US Core Durable Goods Orders indicator, which measures the change in total value of new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods, excluding transportation items, was higher than expected, signalling the US economy is stronger than previously expected.

“A hot economy could boost inflation, a scenario which makes the Federal Reserve more likely to raise interest rates to control the speed of the rise in prices, which would in turn boost the country’s currency.

“From a technical point of view, USD/MYR has just broken above the 4.4350 and could move up to 4.4700 in the coming days, where it should find temporary resistance,” he told Bernama.

At the opening, the ringgit traded mostly lower against a basket of major currencies.

Against the Japanese yen, it edged up to 3.3392/3428 from 3.3397/3415 at the close on Wednesday, fell against the British pound to 5.5614/5671 from 5.5573/5597 and declined vis-a-vis the euro to 4.9255/9305 from 4.9209/9231.

Similarly, the local currency traded lower against Asean currencies. It was weaker against the Indonesian rupiah at 300.5/301.0 from 300.3/300.6 yesterday and eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.3397/3433 from 3.3387/3405.

The ringgit dropped to 8.02/8.05 against the Philippine peso from yesterday’s close of 8.01/8.02 and went down against the Thai baht to 13.0601/0798 from 13.0261/0365.