The Election Of Janet Yellen As US Finance Minister Is Believed To Have Encouraged The Strengthening Of The Rupiah

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market opened slightly lower on trading Tuesday, November 24. The rupiah opened lower by 1 point or 0.01 percent to a level of Rp14,150 per US dollar (US).

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said that positive sentiment seems to be overshadowing risk asset price movements this morning in the Asian market.

"Additional reports of successful vaccine testing, this time from Astrazeneca, are providing positive sentiment for financial markets," Ariston told VOI.

Apart from that, news from US politics where Trump finally allowed a transitional period of government and the potential for the election of Janet Yellen (former Governor of the Fed) as the new US finance minister by Joe Biden also gave positive sentiment to the market.

"The rupiah still has the opportunity to strengthen against the US dollar with the sentiments above, a potential range of Rp14,100-14,200 per US dollar," he said.

This morning, the rupiah weakened along with several Asian currencies. The South Korean won led Asian currencies weakening 0.12 percent, followed by the Taiwan dollar weakening 0.08 percent, the Thai baht weakening 0.04 percent. The Philippine peso weakened 0.04 percent and the Japanese yen weakened 0.03 percent against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, other Asian currencies strengthened against the US dollar. The Chinese yuan strengthened 0.10 percent, the Singapore dollar strengthened 0.06 percent, the Indian rupee strengthened 0.06 percent, and the Hong Kong dollar strengthened 0.001 percent against the US dollar.