• USD gains in response to Russia threatening to use nuclear capabilities

Global Highlights

US dollar – The Dollar Index increased 0.10% to 96.710 as investors flocked into the greenback, responding to new fresh sanctions imposed on Russia. The market was also responding to President Vladimir Putin’s call on his nuclear forces to be on “special alert”.

US equities – The Dow Jones was down 0.49% to 33,893 points, the S&P 500 0.24% to 4,374 but the Nasdaq tech-heavyweight was up 0.4% to 13,751 points. The decline in equities was due to investors seeking other alternatives as the situation in Ukraine could escalate even further.

Euro – The euro shed 0.45% to 1.122.

British pound – The pound climbed 0.0% to 1.342. On a macro front, the UK and New Zealand signed a free trade deal, in which the UK government said it would boost bilateral trade by 60%.

Japanese yen – The yen ended 0.05% up at 116.06. Tokyo announced that it has joined sanctions on the Russian central bank, by restricting the Russian central bank’s ability to deploy foreign exchange and gold reserves and will cut Russia’s major bank off the SWIFT financial network.

Chinese yuan – The yuan slid 0.13% to 6.309.

Korean won – The won inched up by 0.05% to 1202.37.

Australian dollar – The Aussie dollar added 0.51% to 0.726. On a macro front, the latest retail sales number showed an increase of 1.8% m/m, reflecting the continuous economic recovery.

Commodities Highlights

Crude oil – Brent increased 3.12% to US$101 per barrel while WTI surged 4.51% to US$96 per barrel.

Gold – Gold prices rallied by 1.04% to US$1,908/oz on Wednesday.

Malaysia Highlights

Malaysian ringgit – The ringgit strengthened slightly by 0.07% to 4.199, reflecting some demand on the EM currency at the moment.

KLSE – The FBM KLCI shot up 1.04% to 1,608 rebounding from recent drops.

Fixed Income – The local bond market was mixed. The 3-year up by 0.3bps, 5-year down by 0.1bps, 7-year down by 0.6bps and 10-year down by -0.5bps.

Rates – The IRS for the (3Y) was down 1.5bps to 2.895%, (5Y) -2.5bps to 3.150%, (7Y) +0.3bps to 3.354%, and (10Y) +0.5bps to 3.550%. KLIBOR was unchanged at 1.970%.

Against major currencies – The ringgit closed mixed as it was lower vs. the EUR, GBP, AUD, CNY, SGD and PHP but higher vs. the JPY, THB, IDR, and VND.

Ringgit Outlook for the Day

We expect the MYR to trade between our support level of 4.1930 and 4.1960 while our resistance is pinned at 4.2120 and 4.2150.

Source: AmInvest Research - 1 Mar 2022