The local note fell further in early trade today to settle at 4.6825/4.6875 to the greenback just five minutes after the opening bell.

It closed at 4.6735/4.6805 to the US dollar yesterday.

ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the upward movement of the greenback comes after the release of the US initial jobless claims data, which came in lower than expected, indicating a resilient American economy.

“This indicator measures the number of people who requested unemployment insurance in the previous week and helps investors gauge the health of the job market in the US. Lower than expected readings mean that unemployment is under control and this tends to be positive for the dollar,” he explained.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid noted that the US dollar index has been seeing an uptick, suggesting that the path for a weaker greenback is likely to be bumpy despite rising anticipation for an easier US interest rate outlook.

“Hence, the local currency is expected to remain sideways but should stay near its immediate support level of RM4.6611 against the US dollar,” he told Bernama.

In the early trade, the ringgit was traded mostly lower versus a basket of major currencies.

It was slightly lower against the euro at 5.0988/5.1042 from 5.0946/5.1022 yesterday, fell versus the Japanese yen to 3.1363/3.1399 from 3.1338/3.1387 but rose vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.8484/5.8547 from 5.8550/5.8637.

The local note also traded mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

It was flat vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah at 300.5/301.1 from 300.0/300.6 but slid against the Singapore dollar to 3.4892/3.4934 from 3.4838/3.4893.

It dropped versus the Thai baht to 13.2837/13.3043 from 13.2702/13.2957 yesterday and was also down against the Philippine peso at 8.43/8.45 from 8.42/8.44 previously.