KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on Friday (Jan 6) on better demand for the greenback as the US job data came in better than expected, prompting concerns that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue to hike rates to combat inflation, dealers said.

At 9am, the local note eased to 4.3950/4000 against the US dollar from Thursday’s closing of 4.3860/3915.

Speaking to Bernama, SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said he expects the ringgit to experience a bit of a setback on Friday, as the solid private US jobs data ahead of Friday night's US nonfarm payroll data flipped the scales in favour of the more hawkish Fed, which provided a tailwind for the US dollar.

“Given the strong China reopening impulse, I think [the ringgit’s] losses will be limited, but local traders could be more defensive ahead of Friday's critical US jobs report,” he told Bernama.

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

It appreciated against the British pound to 5.2406/2466 from 5.2781/2847 at Thursday’s close and strengthened against the euro to 4.6279/6332 from 4.6588/6647 on Thursday.

The ringgit also rose versus the Singapore dollar to 3.2694/2736 from 3.2748/2794 previously and improved vis-a-vis the Japanese yen to 3.2911/2954 from 3.3104/3148 on Thursday.