KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): The ringgit opened marginally higher against the US dollar, as lower US consumer confidence data took a toll on the greenback.
At 9am on Wednesday (Oct 26), the local currency had inched up to 4.7300/7340 against the greenback from Tuesday’s close at 4.7350/7375.
ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the consumer confidence data, which measures how confident families feel about the economic scenario in the short and medium term, fell to 102.5 in October from 107.8 in September.
“The lower-than-expected reading (102.5 versus the 106.5 forecast) tends to be negative for the US dollar in the medium term,” he told Bernama.
He said US household spending represents approximately two-thirds of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and when consumers feel less confident about the future, it would be reflected in the GDP numbers quite heavily.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.
The local note slipped against the pound to 5.4111/4157 from 5.3600/3628 at Tuesday’s close, and eased versus the Singapore dollar to 3.3345/3378 from 3.3233/3253.
It depreciated against the yen to 3.1927/1958 from 3.1804/1823, and slid vis-a-vis the euro to 4.7049/7089 from 4.6711/6735 on Tuesday.-BERNAMA