At 5pm, the ringgit was quoted at 4.0950/0020 against the US dollar from 4.1430/1480 on Friday.

A dealer said the greenback took a hit as last week’s US non-farm payrolls report sent markets through a roller-coaster.

“Only 38,000 jobs were added to the economy versus expectations of 164,000, this was the fewest number of jobs since September 2010, and to add salt to the wound, April figures were revised down by 37,000 jobs to 123,000,” he said.

He said with only some tier-two economic data on the US calendar the week ahead, all eyes will be on US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

“Her speech today will be the only key event to change market sentiment, she can either stick to her opinion that rates will rise in the coming months, or acknowledge that the labour market is deteriorating and therefore a cautious approach is required,” he added.

The ringgit was also traded mostly higher against a basket of other major currencies except for the Singapore dollar and the euro.

It depreciated against the euro to 4.6507/6591 from 4.6182/6250 and slid against the Singapore dollar to 3.0128/0182 from Friday’s 3.0098/0154.

The local unit, however, improved against the British pound to 5.9095/9204 from 5.9788/9876 previously. — Bernama