BENGALURU: Most Asian currencies were under pressure on Wednesday, led by a decline in the Malaysian ringgit and Indonesian rupiah, as they tracked a softer dollar ahead of a closely watched US payrolls report and prospects for trade deals ahead of a July 9 deadline.
The ringgit and rupiah shed 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. The South Korean won was flat, as was the Hong Kong dollar.
But the Taiwan dollar bucked the regional trend by adding 0.4%, tracking the softer US dollar. The dollar wallowed near levels last seen in February 2022, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said overnight the central bank would wait for clarity on tariffs’ impact before easing.
The US Senate’s passing of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, which will add $3.3 trillion to the national debt, has stoked fiscal worries.
“I think market players are largely in wait-and-see mode until the release of the US non-farm payrolls data this Thursday,” said Poon Panichpibool, a market strategist at Krung Thai Bank.
The US labour market remained resilient with a rise in job openings for May, data showed, but Thursday’s payrolls report will be monitored for prospects of Fed interest rate cuts.
Asian equities also wavered on Wednesday, putting in a mixed performance.
Thailand’s market was down 0.4% a day after the constitutional court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending a case seeking her removal on allegations of dishonesty and ethics breaches.
A sharp retreat in mega-cap tech shares on Wall Street overnight spilled over to peers in South Korea and Taiwan, both tech-heavy markets.
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