Emerging market assets have been rallying after last week's release of weak US economic data (disappointing US non-farm payrolls and US ISM non-manufacturing PMI) triggering expectation that US labour market conditions are not strong enough to cope with an interest rate hike yet. Today, Malaysia's ringgit appreciated 3.51 percent against the US dollar (Bloomberg data), the steepest gain since 1998 as the country posted the largest trade surplus in nine months while global petroleum prices rose (Malaysia is a net oil exporter).