“Tonight, the focus will be on the US consumer price index (CPI) data which is expected to increase slightly to 3.3% in July from 3% in the previous month, while the core CPI is likely to remain at 4.8%,” said Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid.

“In some sense, there appears to be concerns over global growth prospects, which necessitate an accommodative monetary policy.

“Whatever the case may be, a risk-off mode could lead to higher demand for the US dollar,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said that the ringgit closed with little change as traders maintained a cautious stance in anticipation of the US CPI release.

“However, I believe that the market is currently favouring a more natural approach. While higher oil prices usually benefit the ringgit, this may not be the case if it results in increased US yields.

“As a result, we may witness a clash between rising energy prices and higher US yields, particularly if the US inflation data exceeds expectations,” he said.

At 6pm, the local note rose to 4.5690/4.5720 against the US dollar compared with 4.5705/4.5755 at yesterday’s close.

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

It eased vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.8296/5.8334 from 5.8187/5.8251 on Wednesday, weakened versus the euro to 5.0350/5.0383 from 5.0175/5.0230, but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.1760/3.1783 from 3.1897/3.1934 previously.

At the same time, the local unit traded higher against other Asean currencies.

The ringgit strengthened versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3948/3.3975 from 3.3979/3.4021 at Wednesday’s close and improved against the Indonesian rupiah to 300.8/301.2 from 300.9/301.3 yesterday.

It gained vis-a-vis the Philippine peso to 8.12/8.13 from 8.13/8.14 on Wednesday and rose against the Thai baht at 13.0112/13.0264 from 13.0791/13.0998 previously.