At 8.05am, the ringgit declined to 4.6650/4.6700 against the greenback from Thursday’s close of 4.6600/4.6625.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid said the ringgit would be traded at the current level against the US dollar as expectations remain for the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

He noted that US economic growth for the second quarter of 2024 came in higher than expected at 2.8% versus consensus estimates of 2% and higher than 1.4% in the prior quarter.

He added that initial jobless claims were also lower at 235,000 last week compared to the consensus forecast of 237,000.

“While data points are still holding up, tonight’s releases would be much more important with personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price inflation expected to clock in lower at 2.4% in June compared to 2.6% in May. Similarly, the core PCE would decelerate further to 2.5% from 2.6% previously,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the local note was mostly higher against a basket of major currencies.

The local currency appreciated against the Japanese yen at 3.0363/3.0398 from Thursday’s close of 3.0598/3.0616, strengthened against the British pound to 5.9978/6.0042 from 6.0039/6.0072 but fell vis-a-vis the euro to 5.0629/5.0684 from 5.0570/5.0597 yesterday.

However, the ringgit is mostly lower against Asean currencies.

The domestic unit went up against the Thai baht to 12.8789/12.8991 against Thursday’s 12.8875/12.9005 and eased against the Singapore dollar to 3.4733/3.4773 from Thursday’s 3.4714/3.4735.

Against the rupiah, the local currency slipped to 287.0/287.5 from 286.7/287.0 and against the peso, to 7.96/7.97 from Thursday’s 7.95/7.96