ActivTrades trader Dyogenes Rodrigues Diniz said the market continues to believe that a rise in interest rates is on the cards for the US Federal Reserve.

He noted that the US Conference Boards’ consumer confidence came in slightly lower than expected at 103 versus the forecasted 105.5, while the New Home Sales data for August also came in slightly lower than expected at 675,000 against the forecast of 700,000.

“Although lower-than-expected readings tend to be negative for the US dollar since the difference was small, the market maintained its bullish direction from the previous days,” he said in a note today.

From the technical point of view, despite the upward movement today, Diniz said the market has not yet managed to break above the lateralisation over the last few days.

“A bullish move could happen if the US dollar/ringgit manages to break above 4.6970 in the coming days,” he added.

At 9.15am, the local note slid to 4.7050/4.7095 against the US dollar from yesterday’s close of 4.6875/6915.

Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It eased against the euro at 4.9694/4.9742 from yesterday’s closing of 4.9673/4.9716, depreciated against the British pound at 5.7147/5.7202 from 5.7117/5.7166 and declined against the Japanese yen to 3.1573/3.1605 from 3.1489/3.1518 yesterday.

At the same time, the local note was also traded lower against other Asian currencies.

It went down against the Thai baht to 12.9038/12.9211 from 12.8884/12.9043 yesterday and slipped against the Indonesian rupiah to 303.6/304.1 from 302.5/303 previously.

It had also slid against the Philippine peso at 8.25/8.27 from 8.23/8.24 yesterday and decreased against the Singapore dollar to 3.4353/3.4391 from 3.4275/3.4310 previously.