Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd’s chief economist, Afzanizam Rashid, said the anticipation over the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) upcoming interest rate decision lifted the ringgit. “The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members will meet on Sept 16-17 and are expected to deliver a 25 basis points (bps) cut,” he told Bernama.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said the ringgit strengthened today as the US dollar slipped on the back of weaker US labour signals.

“Markets shrugged off the 0.3% US inflation uptick (for August) and instead zeroed in on the deteriorating jobs data. A jump in (US) jobless claims (last week) pushed interest rate-cut expectations higher, with traders now pricing in 72bps of Fed easing for the rest of 2025, up from 68bps before the release,” he added.

At 6pm, the local currency breached the 4.2 level against the US dollar, bouncing to 4.1975/4.2080 from Thursday’s close of 4.2185/4.2240.

At the close, the ringgit was firmer against a basket of major currencies.

It gained against the euro to 4.9203/4.9326 from 4.9293/4.9357, climbed up versus the yen to 2.8373/2.8446 from 2.8509/2.8548, and advanced vis-a-vis the pound to 5.6864/5.7006 from 5.6954/5.7028 yesterday.

The local currency was also mostly higher against Asean currencies.

It inched up versus the Singapore dollar to 3.2719/3.2803 from 3.2829/3.2874, rose against the baht to 13.2317/13.2703 from 13.2432/13.2663, and edged up against the peso to 7.35/7.37 from 7.37/7.39 previously.

However, the ringgit eased marginally vis-à-vis the rupiah to 256.3/257.0 from 256.2/256.7.