THE ringgit extended its downtrend today against the greenback for the fourth consecutive day following US Federal Reserve (Fed) chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish tone in his statement on US monetary policy yesterday.

At 6pm, the ringgit slid to 4.7065/7105 against the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.6895/6965.

The ringgit has now given up most of its recent gains but remains above 25-year lows.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said Powell’s statement during the International Monetary Fund forum last night has serious implications for financial markets.

It was reported that Powell’s comments suggested that the American central bank is not 100% convinced the rate hike cycle is over and that he indicated US interest rates might need to rise further to win the battle against inflation in the United States.

“It (would make) the markets rethink the Fed strategy on bringing down inflation further despite the softening of the US labour market in October,” he said.

Therefore, he expects forex markets to continue to remain cautious from now until the next US Federal Open Market Committee meeting on December 12-13.

At the close, the ringgit was traded mostly lower versus a basket of major currencies.

It eased against the Japanese yen to 3.1072/1101 from 3.1050/1099 at yesterday’s close and dropped versus the euro to 5.0232/0275 from 5.0173/0248, but rose against the British pound to 5.7480/7529 from 5.7695/7781.

The ringgit also turned mostly lower against other Asean currencies.

It depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 3.4599/4631 from 3.4563/4617 yesterday, declined against the Philippine peso to 8.41/8.42 from 8.39/8.41 and slipped vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 299.8/300.2 from 299.5/300.1. It inched up against the Thai baht to 13.1108/1267 from 13.1802/2065 yesterday. – Bernama, November 10, 2023.