At 9.16 am (0116 gmt), the ringgit stood at 4.0870/0900 against the greenback from 4.0870/0910 at the close Wednesday.
KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit extended Friday's downtrend to open lower against the US dollar this morning as most traders stayed on the sidelines for an announcement on the overnight policy rate (OPR) by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) tomorrow.
At 9 am, the ringgit was lower at 4.1465/1495 compared with 4.1410/1440 at Friday's close. The dealer said the greenback also weakened after Federal Reserve officials' voiced concerns about low inflation.
“There were some inflationary pressure from a weaker dollar and the traders' bets that the Fed is willing to cut interest rates if the U.S. economy softens,” he said.
On other external development, China was reportedly considering cancelling its negotiation with Washington as U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened to impose new tariffs on trade with the country.
Representatives from the world's two largest economies are scheduled to meet this week.
The ringgit also traded lower against other major currencies.
It slid slightly against the Singapore dollar to 3.0362/0395 from 3.0355/0379 on Friday and fell against the yen to 3.7572/7610 from 3.7142/7179.
The local currency depreciated versus the British pound to 5.4497/4553 from 5.3792/3843 and slipped against the euro to 4.6370/6420 from 4.6185/6230. - Bernama
Ambank research says there is an increasing chance that Bank Negara will maintain its policy rate at 3.25% tomorrow in favour of July rate cut instead.
In a note, the research house said it expects the ringgit to trade between its support levels of 4.1251 and 4.1308 while its resistance is pegged at 4.1473 and 4.1531.
On Trumps' tariff announcement, Ambank says it is inclear how the Chinese will respond to the new threat.
"Such pressure by the Trump administration on trade talks, however, has often sparked uproar on Wall Street with major selloffs over jitters the trade war would be long lasting.
"But investors more recently have been cautiously optimistic the two sides can strike a deal," it said.
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