The USD/MYR currency pair pulled back from an intraday high of 4.4350 on Tuesday, reversing earlier gains, as concerns over a US economic slowdown and potential recession mounted.

The US Dollar hovered just above a four-month low against major peers and the yield on 10-year US Treasuries dropped to a one-week low, as recession fears intensified after US President Trump over the weekend refused to rule out a potential downturn. Trump described the current economic environment as a “period of transition.”

The Trump administration’s tariffs, particularly those targeting steel and automobiles, added to the overall uncertainty, casting a shadow over future trade relations.

“The silver lining of all of this is that it means the Federal Reserve will likely cut rates and soften the U.S. dollar, which would help emerging Asia,” Trinh Nguyen, senior economist at corporate and investment banking firm Natixis, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Investor focus now sets on the US job openings, CPI inflation and producer price inflation figures this week, which may provide more clues over the US interest rate cut trajectory.

Job openings dropped by 556,000 to 7.6 million in December, thus, signaling a gradual labor market cooling. The report for January is due out at 14:00 GMT.

Annual headline consumer inflation in the US probably eased to 2.9% in February, according to market consensus, from 3% in January – the highest rate since June 2024.

Annual core CPI inflation probably eased to 3.2% in February from 3.3% in January. The official CPI data will be released tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in other data, Malaysia’s jobless rate was reported at 3.1% in January, down from 3.3% in the same month of 2024. It has been the lowest unemployment rate since May 2015.

The number of unemployed persons fell 5.9% YoY to 533,800.

The USD/MYR currency pair was last down 0.25% on the day to trade at 4.4100.