Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Afzanizam Rashid said market attention is now on the ADP employment change report, which measures private-sector job creation in the US, with consensus expectations at 65,000 new jobs in August compared with 104,000 in the previous month.

“Initial jobless claims were expected to edge slightly higher to 230,000 last week from 229,000 the week before.

“In a sense, traders and markets can agree that signs of economic weakness in the US are becoming clearer,” he told Bernama.

He said the case for an interest rate cut has therefore become more compelling, with futures pricing now showing a more than 90% probability of a rate reduction.

“However, the US dollar seems to gain some strength. On that note, traders and investors are likely to be more guarded as the nonfarm payrolls (NFP) data point could surprise on the upside this Friday,” he added.

At 6pm, the local currency eased to 4.2260/4.2320 from yesterday’s close of 4.2230/4.2285.

At the close, the ringgit was mostly lower against major currencies.

It rose against the euro to 4.9203/4.9273 from 4.9223/4.9287, but slipped versus the yen to 2.8489/2.8531 from 2.8430/2.8469 and reduced against the pound to 5.6793/5.6874 from 5.6614/5.6687.

Against Asean currencies, the ringgit was also mostly lower, except for a slight strengthening against the Singapore dollar to 3.2775/3.2824 from 3.2777/3.2822 previously.

The local currency eased against the Thai baht to 13.0666/13.0908 from 13.0529/13.0759, was marginally lower versus the Indonesian rupiah at 257.3/257.7 from 257.2/257.7, and slipped against the Philippine peso to 7.40/7.42 from 7.37/7.38.